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Singapore’s retail sales fall 0.8% in January on lower motor vehicle sales

  • Mar 03, 2023

SINGAPORE’S retail sales dipped 0.8 per cent on the year in January, mainly on lower motor vehicle sales that corresponded with the lower Certificate of Entitlement quota, Department of Statistics (Singstat) data showed on Friday (Mar 3).

This marked a reversal from December 2022’s 7.7 per cent growth. If not for motor vehicle sales, retail sales would have been up from the year-ago period in January.

On a seasonally-adjusted monthly basis, retail sales dropped 9.4 per cent, reversing from the previous month’s 1.3 per cent expansion.

The total retail sales value was S$4.2 billion for the month, with online sales accounting for 11.5 per cent, lower than the 13 per cent recorded in December.

Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales expanded by 2.1 per cent from the year-ago period, narrowing from 9.8 per cent in December. On the month, seasonally adjusted, it shed 8.2 per cent, against the 1 per cent growth on the month in December.

Slightly more than half of retail sales categories posted year-on-year growth:

  • Department stores (4.6 per cent)
  • Food and alcohol (36.3 per cent)
  • Cosmetics, toiletries and medical goods (5.4 per cent)
  • Wearing apparel and footwear (23.7 per cent)
  • Recreational goods (9.7 per cent)
  • Computer and telecommunications equipment (6.3 per cent)
  • Optical goods and books (4.8 per cent)
  • Others (9 per cent)

Those posting contractions were:

  • Supermarkets and hypermarkets (-2.7 per cent)
  • Mini-marts and convenience stores (-7.5 per cent)
  • Motor vehicles (-23.5 per cent)
  • Petrol service stations (-8.8 per cent)
  • Furniture and household equipment (-13.5 per cent)
  • Watches and jewellery (-5.6 per cent)

On a month-on-month seasonally-adjusted basis, most categories monitored recorded falls. Sales of food and alcohol (-22.5 per cent), furniture and household equipment (-21.2 per cent) and motor vehicles (-19.1 per cent) declined the most.

Recreational goods (5.8 per cent), computer and telecommunications equipment (4.8 per cent) and optical goods and books (0.6 per cent) were the only categories to register increases on the month.

Sales of food and beverage services rose 21.8 per cent year on year and 2 per cent on a monthly seasonally-adjusted basis, with year-on-year growth across all segments.

  • Restaurants (21.7 per cent)
  • Fast food outlets (18.7 per cent)
  • Food caterers (110.2 per cent)
  • Cafes, food courts and other eating places (11.5 per cent)

Singstat attributed the jump in readings for food caterers to higher demand for both event and in-flight catering with the easing of restrictions on large-scale events, international travel as well as social gatherings.

Source: https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/singapore/singapores-retail-sales-fall-08-january-lower-motor-vehicle-sales