March retail sales down 13.3%; Worse dive expected for April, May

Singapore

SINGAPORE'S retail sales fell 13.3 per cent year on year in March - the sharpest fall in two decades - as the Covid-19 outbreak continued to take a toll, according to Department of Statistics (Singstat) figures on Tuesday.

Deepening from -8.4 per cent in February, this was the worst fall since -16.9 per cent in September 1998.

Food and beverage (F&B) services took a larger hit, with takings down 23.7 per cent year on year or 9.6 per cent on a month-on-month seasonally adjusted basis.

Things are set to get even worse, said economists, as the March figures are from before "circuit breaker" measures started on April 7.

Maybank Kim Eng economist Lee Ju Ye expects declines beyond -20 per cent in April and May, due to the circuit breaker measures and consumers avoiding discretionary …