Business receipts for most major service industries recorded a year-on-year fall in value in the third quarter, the Census & Statistics Department says.

Business receipts of the transportation industry recorded the largest decline (-25.6%) mainly due to the significant decrease in the water and air-transport industries.

Other major falls were recorded in accommodation (mainly referring to hotel services) (-17.7%), administrative and support services (-15.6%), the import and export trade (-14.8%), and wholesale (-10.1%) industries.

The real estate industry saw a 26.7% year-on-year increase in business receipts. Increases were also recorded in insurance (+5.7%), financing (except banking) (+3.4%), professional, scientific and technical services (+3.1%) and warehousing and storage Industries (+2.8%).

Analysed by service domain, business receipts for the computer and information technology sector dropped 18.5% due to the fall in trading of computer and related products. The tourism, convention and exhibition services sector dropped 5.8% because of a significant drop in the average hotel room rate.

Comparing the third quarter with the second quarter of 2009, except for the banking industry, all major service industries recorded increases in business receipts, including the wholesale (+13.1%), import and export trade (+10.8%) and courier (+10.4%) industries.