Singapore's retail sales increased 3.0 percent in May on a year-on-year basis, mainly due to higher sales of motor vehicles, said the Department of Statistics (SingStat) on Friday.
Retail sales fell 3.3 percent year-on-year excluding motor vehicles, said SingStat in the report. The total retail sales value in May was estimated at 3.7 billion Singapore dollars (2.75 billion U.S. dollars), higher than the 3.6 billion Singapore dollars (2.68 billion U.S. dollars) in the same period last year.
While on a month-on-month basis, retail sales rose by 1.4 percent in May. Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales grew up by 2.3 percent. Sales for motor vehicles rose 35.9 percent in May year-on-year, the highest increase across all sectors.
And furniture and household equipment, medical goods and toiletries followed, registering an increase of 3.1 percent, 1.9 percent respectively. On the contrary, the sector of telecommunications apparatus and computers fell the most, registering a decline of 17.3 percent year-on-year.
Petrol service and stations followed, decreasing 14. 9 percent. Recreational goods, optical goods and books also went down by 8.7 percent and 5.6 percent. On food and beverage services, sales for the sector in May rose by 0.7 percent year-on-year, grew up by 0.9 percent month-on-month.
The total sales value of food and beverage services in May was estimated at 690 million Singapore dollars (513.4 million U.S. dollars), higher than the 685 million Singapore dollars (509.6 million U.S. dollars) in May 2015.
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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