Circuit breaker sends April retail sales into sharpest fall in 30 years

Singapore

SINGAPORE'S retail sales tumbled 40.5 per cent year on year in April - the sharpest fall in more than three decades - triggered by "circuit-breaker" measures implemented between April 7 and June 1 to contain the Covid-19 outbreak.

Going by Department of Statistics figures released on Friday, this 40.5 per cent number was a deepening of the -13.3 per cent fall in March. It also represented the 15th consecutive month of decline, and the worst dive since 1986.