Cars put the brakes on retail sales

SINGAPORE retail sales fell for the first time in six months in September amid poor motor vehicle sales, a reversal from a strong showing in August.

Retailers saw total takings decline by 0.5 per cent year-on-year, compared with August's total sales growth of 3.7 per cent - its strongest growth rate since March 2016 and the sixth consecutive month of expansion - which was revised up from 3.5 per cent previously.

Standard Chartered economist Jonathan Koh said that the poor headline figure was expected, given earlier data that prices of certificates of entitlement (COE) and vehicle registrations had gone down.