HONG KONG - Hong Kong's Census and Statistics Department announced Monday that the value of total retail sales of the city in July was provisionally estimated at HK$35.2 billion ($4.52 billion), up 29.1 percent year on year.

According to the department, after netting out the effect of price changes over the same period, the volume of total retail sales grew 22.4 percent.

The revised estimate of the value of total retail sales in June rose 28.8 percent at HK$31.3 billion, and the volume of total retail sales increased 22.2 percent.

For the first seven months of the year, total retail sales increased 25.1 percent in value and 19.6 percent in volume, over the same period last year.

Analyzed by broad type of retail outlet and comparing July this year with the same month last year, the volume of sales of miscellaneous consumer durable goods increased the most, by 84.6 percent, followed by sales of electrical goods and photographic equipment, up 73.3 percent.

The department added that based on the seasonally adjusted series, the volume of total retail sales increased by 5.3 percent in the three months ending July when compared with the preceding three-month period.