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Takings rise 16% year on year for Singapore’s services industries in Q3

SINGAPORE’S services industries saw business receipts rise 16 per cent year on year for the third quarter, according to Department of Statistics (Singstat) figures on Friday (Nov 26). Business receipts were also up 4.8 per cent on a quarter-to-quarter non-seasonally adjusted basis.

However, Singstat’s business receipts index excludes wholesale trade, retail trade, and accommodation and food services, which are tracked separately.

Almost all services industries in the index saw year-on-year as well as quarter-on-quarter gains in Q3.

The lone exception was the recreation and personal services industry, which saw a year-on-year decline of 13.3 per cent and a quarter-on-quarter fall of 13.7 per cent. This was due to tightened Covid-19 curbs on group sizes, said Singstat.

On a year-on-year basis, information and communications services saw the largest rise in turnover, of 39.4 per cent, which Singstat attributed to higher revenue from firms engaged in software publishing – including games – and web portals, such as online marketplaces.

Transportation and storage also saw high growth of 39.1 per cent, with a rise in air transport activities as global travel curbs eased.

Those 2 industries also saw the largest increases on a quarterly basis, of 13.9 per cent for transportation and storage – though this was due mainly to shipping lines seeing a rise in freight rates and volume – and 7 per cent for information and communications.

On a year-to-year basis, double-digit growth was also seen for real estate (13.5 per cent), and finance and insurance (10.5 per cent). Also seeing growth were health and social services (9 per cent), professional services (8.4 per cent), education (6.6 per cent), and administrative and support services (0.9 per cent).

Several industries saw similar rates of quarterly growth: finance and insurance (3.4 per cent), health and social services (3.5 per cent), real estate (3.9 per cent) and education (3.9 per cent).

Quarterly growth was lower for administrative and support services (1.9 per cent) and professional services (1.7 per cent).

Source: https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/takings-rise-16-year-on-year-for-singapores-services-industries-in-q3