MACAO, May 24 (Xinhua) -- The value of retail sales in China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) for the first quarter this year amounted to 20.74 billion patacas (2.56 billion U.S. dollars), up by 25.7 percent year-on-year, due to the sales boom during the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, the SAR's statistics bureau said on Thursday.

Information from the Statistics and Census Service also indicated that as compared with the revised figure (19.08 billion patacas) in the fourth quarter of 2017, the value of retail sales rose by 8.7 percent in the first quarter this year.

In the first quarter, watches, clocks and jewellery accounted for 21.1 percent of the total retail sales, followed by goods in department stores (16.0 percent), adults' clothing (14.1 percent), leather goods (12.9 percent) and goods in supermarkets (5.7 percent).

As compared with the first quarter of 2018, about 55.3 percent of the retailers anticipated a stable business performance in the second quarter this year. (One U.S. dollar equals to 8.07 patacas)