Food and beverage industry in Hong Kong posts first annual decline in revenue since Sars, with 5.9 per cent drop

Hong Kong’s food and beverage industry has posted its first annual decline in earnings since the Sars outbreak in 2003, with greater headwinds expected amid the coronavirus epidemic.Revenue for the restaurant sector fell 5.9 per cent to HK$112.5 billion (US$14.5 billion) in 2019 from the previous year, according to provisional data from the Census and Statistics Department released on Wednesday.A government spokesman noted the figure of HK$26 billion for the final three months last year was a…