Singapore's retail sales increased 2.7 percent in October on a year-on-year basis, mainly due to a spike in sales of motor vehicles, said the Department of Statistics Singapore (SingStat) on Tuesday.
On a month-on-month basis, retail sales rose by 1 percent in October. Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales decreased 0.3 percent. The total retail sales value in October was estimated at 3.5 billion Singapore dollars (2.5 billion U.S. dollars), higher than 3.4 billion Singapore dollars (2.4 billion U.S. dollars) in October in 2014.
Sales of motor vehicles registered a record surge of 61.8 percent in October on year, while retail sales of medical goods and toiletries also rose by 11.3 percent year-on-year. On the other hand, sales of telecommunications apparatus and computers recorded the highest drop of 19.4 percent, while sales of food and beverage services fell 3.8 percent, with the total sales value of food and beverage services in October estimated at 650 million Singapore dollars (461 million U.S. dollars).
The Retail Sales Index and the Food and Beverage Services Index measure the short-term performance of retail and Food and Beverage service industries based on their sales records. The sales figures exclude taxes.
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