MACAO, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- Retail sales in Macao for the third quarter of 2018 increased by 12.8 percent year-on-year to 18.19 billion patacas (about 2.26 billion U.S. dollars), the special administrative region's statistic department said here on Sunday.

The latest report from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the figure in the third quarter also rose by 1.0 percent as compared with the revised figure in the second quarter of 2018.

Watches, clocks and jewelry accounted for 21.0 percent of the total value of retail sales, followed by department store goods (16.3 percent), adults' clothing (13.0 percent), leather goods (12.3 percent) and supermarket goods (6.6 percent).

Sales values of the major retail activities recorded year-on-year increases in the third quarter of 2018, with department store goods (23.1 percent), communication equipment (19.8 percent), automotive fuels (19.7 percent) and pharmacies goods (19.4 percent) showing significant growth.

Value of retail sales for the first three quarters of 2018 surged by 20.8 percent year-on-year to 56.97 billion patacas (about 7.07 billion dollars), the report added.

In terms of retailers' feedback, 45.8 percent of the retailers expected the sales volume in the fourth quarter of 2018 to be stable year-on-year, 38.2 percent forecast a decrease and 16.0 percent predicted an increase.

Meanwhile, 76.9 percent of retailers expected retail prices to remain steady year-on-year in the fourth quarter, 13.7 percent anticipated growth and 9.4 percent foresaw a decline.

Compared with the third quarter of 2018, 51.3 percent of retailers anticipated a stable business performance in the fourth quarter, 31.0 percent expected business to worsen and 17.7 percent predicted an improvement.