Annual retail sales fall for the first time in five years

Singapore

RETAIL sales this year could stay sluggish, analysts warned, after full-year figures were released by the Department of Statistics on Tuesday.

Cashiers here rang up 0.7 per cent less in 2018 than in the year before - the first annual decline since 2013. Stripping out auto sales, which have been on a downward jag, Singapore retail sales grew by a softer 1.1 per cent last year, against 1.8 per cent in 2017.