Singapore retail sales in July up 0.2% as low-base effects wear off

SINGAPORE retail sales in July grew a marginal 0.2 per cent year on year, easing from the double-digit growth seen in the previous two months as low-base effects wear off, data from the Department of Statistics Singapore (SingStat) showed on Friday.

In June, retail sales rose a revised 26 per cent year on year, as Singapore was making calibrated moves to exit its partial lockdown the previous year with physical stores closed until June 18.

On a month-on-month seasonally adjusted basis however, retail sales grew 0.8 per cent in July.

Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales rose 2 per cent year on year and 2.9 per cent sequentially.

Overall retail sales value in July remained below pre-Covid-19 levels at S$3.4 billion. Of this, online retail sales made up about 13.9 per cent, down from 15.4 per cent in June.

Online sales of computer and telecommunications equipment made up 55.8 per cent of total sales in the industry, while that for furniture and household equipment was 29.9 per cent, as well as 14 per cent for supermarkets and hypermarkets.

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Petrol service stations saw the biggest growth across industries tracked by SingStat, with sales jumping 33.5 per cent year on year. This was followed by watches and jewellery at 10.4 per cent, and food and alcohol at 8.1 per cent.

Sequentially, department stores saw the biggest gains at 16.2 per cent, but it was the second-biggest loser in terms of year-on-year sales with a 9.2 per cent decline.

Wearing apparel and footwear clocked the second-highest month-on-month growth at 13.7 per cent, followed by cosmetics, toiletries and medical goods at 6.9 per cent.

On the other hand, the motor-vehicle industry was the all-round biggest loser, with year-on-year and month-on-month declines at 9.8 per cent and 11.4 per cent, respectively.

Sales of optical goods and books fell 7.7 per cent, while that for recreational goods dropped 7.1 per cent.

As for the total food and beverage (F&B) industry, sales fell 5.9 per cent year on year but rose 12.9 per cent on a month-on-month seasonally adjusted basis. SingStat said the year-on-year decline was due to the implementation of stricter dine-in restrictions this year, with dining-in banned from July 22. In July last year, groups of up to five could dine in for the whole month.

Consequently, restaurants saw sales drop 21.6 per cent year on year due to the curbs.

However, fast-food outlets saw sales grow 18.7 per cent, while cafes, food courts and other eating places were up 6.6 per cent due to higher demand for food deliveries.

Food caterers saw turnover fall 45.8 per cent compared with the same period last year where there was higher demand for catered meals from foreign worker dormitories, SingStat said.

Meanwhile, total F&B sales grew sequentially since dining-in was only allowed for groups of up to two from June 21 to the end of the month, SingStat said.

All categories experienced sales growth, with restaurants clocking a 35.7 per cent month-on-month rise. This was followed by cafes, food courts and other eating places at 7.2 per cent, fast-food outlets at 1.4 per cent, and food caterers at 1.2 per cent.