MACAO, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The overall business performance of retail trade in Macao was relatively favourable in 2018, with over 60 percent of the interviewed retailers reporting a year-on-year sales rise in seven months throughout the year, the special administrative region's statistic service said here on Sunday.

The latest report from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that despite the good performance in the whole year, the business performance of both retail trade and restaurants showed a decline since September 2018.

The interviewed restaurants and similar establishments were quite optimistic about their business prospects in January 2019, with 78 percent of them expecting their revenue to increase year-on-year or remain stable, up by 5 percentage points from December 2018.

Meanwhile, 22 percent of the interviewed establishments predicted a year-on-year decline in revenue, the report added.

Retailers expected stable business in January 2019, with 73 percent of them anticipating their sales to increase year-on-year or keep steady, a 2 percentage point rise from December 2018. On the other hand, 27 percent of the interviewed retailers anticipated a year-on-year sales decrease.