Gold Jewelry Sales In Hong Kong Poised To Leap 30% In Year Of The Rabbit As Weddings

(January 26,2023- Enoch Yiu)

• Newlyweds are preparing to spend more on their banquets and jewellery, according to a survey conducted by EDSLife
• The forecast rebound comes after three years of disappointing sales as the pandemic disrupted wedding plans and discouraged big-spending tourists

Gold jewellery sales in Hong Kong are likely to increase by more than 30 per cent in the Year of Rabbit, boosted by the return of weddings and other celebrations after the government scrapped social-distancing measures, industry players said.

The return of mainland Chines tourists now that the border has reopened is expected to make a difference too.

The forecast rise in sales comes after three years of disappointing sales as the pandemic disrupted countless weddings and discouraged big-spending tourists from coming to the city.

“We will see a strong bounce back in sales of gold jewellery in the Year of the Rabbit after the government scrapped all restrictions on the number of people attending wedding banquets,” said Haywood Cheung Tak-hay, president of the Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange Society, a local gold exchange operator.

“Many wedding parties were postponed for the past three years as they wanted to wait until the pandemic is over. Now is the time to clear the backlog of delayed wedding banquets.”

Year of the Rabbit 2023

It is a Chinese tradition that newlyweds and their relatives buy gold jewellery such as bangles inscribed with dragon and phoenix motifs, as dowry for the bride or as wedding gifts.

Hong Kong’s government removed all restrictions on restaurants and banquets in December, a core part of the tough social distancing measures that at one stage limited weddings to just 20 guests.

There were 26,899 marriages in Hong Kong in 2021, according to government data, the lowest in the past 30 years and a sharp fall of 39 per cent from 44,200 weddings in 2019 before the pandemic. The government has yet to release data for 2022.