Singaporean retail sales fall 8.4pc in January

The retail sales of Singapore went down 8.4 per cent in January year-on-year, comparing to a re-calculated 6.3-per cent rise last December, the Department of Statistics of Singapore has said.

The retail sales dropped 5.4 per cent month-on-month on a seasonally adjusted basis in January, comparing to a 0.6-per cent month-on-month growth in the previous month, report Xinhua.

The authority attributed January's month-on-month decrease to the large decline in motor vehicle sales. Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales declined by a smaller 1.5 per cent month-on-month, it said.

The total retail sales value in January was estimated at 3.9 billion Singapore dollars (about 2.97 billion US dollars), the department said on Monday.

The estimated proportion of online retail sales to total retail sales is around 4.1 per cent, it said.

Meanwhile, the sales of food and beverage services decreased 4.0 per cent month-on-month and 13.2 per cent year-on-year in January.

The year-on-year decrease was attributed to the influence of the Chinese New Year, which brought higher sales in January 2017 when the festival fell that year.

 The sales value was estimated at 667 million Singapore dollars (about 507.51 million US dollars).