Boom times: The value of transport industry business receipts rose 20.3% in the third quarter over a year earlier.

The value of business receipts of almost all service industries rose in the third quarter, with financing and transport industries up 29.7% and 20.3% over a year earlier, the Census & Statistics Department says.

The buoyant local stock market fuelled the surge in business receipts of the financing (except banking) industry, while growth in transport was mainly attributable to a rise in air and maritime transport businesses.

According to the provisional business receipts indices released today, other service industries that recorded larger increases in business receipts included insurance (+17.7%), banking (17.5%), hotels (16.6%), real estate (14%) and storage (12.5%). Film entertainment was the only sector which recorded a decline in business receipts.They dipped only 1.5%, though.

Computer business rose 25.2%

Business receipts of the tourism, convention and exhibition services domain rose 8.2% year-on-year in the third quarter, mainly due to the growth in inbound tourism. Business receipts of the computer and information services domain also surged 25.2%.

Comparing the third quarter with the second, there were more service industries with increases in business receipts than those with decreases. Larger increases were recorded in the financing (except banking) (+16.2%) and transport (16%) industries. 

Business receipts of the tourism, convention and exhibition services domain went up 3.4% while computer and information services domain grew 7.3%.

However, business receipts of film entertainment, insurance, retail, business services, real estate and hotels fell 1.1% to 5.4%.

Taking this year's first three quarters together, business receipts in all industries rose over a year earlier, with the largest increase recorded in the real estate industry (23.7%), followed by the hotels industry (20.6%).

During the same period, business receipts of the tourism, convention and exhibition services domain rose 11.6% while computer and information services domain grew 22.5%.