SINGAPORE: Retail sales in Singapore fell 10 per cent in February 2019, compared to the same month in 2018, according to a release from the Department of Statistics (Singstat) on Friday (Apr 12).
On a month-on-month basis, retail sales fell 1.5 per cent. Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales decreased 10.7 per cent year-on-year, and increased 1.5 per cent month-on-month.
Year-on-year sales dropped for all retail sectors, with food retailers seeing the biggest decline, at 24.8 per cent, followed by wearing apparel and footwear at 14.9 per cent.
Sales of department stores, supermarkets, mini-marts and convenience stores, motor vehicles, petrol service stations, medical goods and toiletries, furniture and household equipment, recreational goods, watches and jewellery, computer and telecommunications equipment and optical goods and books all went down between 4.3 and 14.7 per cent year-on-year.
Month-on-month, sales of mini-marts and convenient stores, supermarkets and hypermarkets, department stores, watches and jewellery, wearing apparel and footwear, and food retailers experiences an uptick, with increases of 3.0, 3.8, 5.4, 5.7, 8.5 and 9.5 per cent respectively.
The food and beverage (F&B) services sector reported a drop of 2.3 per cent year-on-year and 0.6 per cent month-on-month for February.
F&B sectors varied in their growth year-on-year, with fast food outlets and other eating places growing 5.6 per cent and 0.6 per cent respectively, and food caterers and restaurants dropping 8 per cent and 4.7 per cent respectively.
On a monthly basis, fast food outlets and food caterers grew 2.6 per cent and 1.7 respectively, with restaurants and other eating page shrinking by 0.1 per cent and 3.2 per cent respectively.
Total retail sales value in February 2019 was about S$3.3 billion. Online sales made up an estimated 5 per cent of this figure.
Meanwhile, food and beverage services took in an estimated S$855 million, an increase from the S$875 million in February 2018.
The Retail Sales Index and the Food and Beverage Services Index measure the short-term performance of retail and F&B service industries based on their sales records. The sales figures exclude taxes such as GST and COE.
