SINGAPORE: Retail sales in Singapore decreased by 2.5 per cent in February from the previous year, according to figures released by the Department of Statistics (Singstat) on Wednesday (Apr 12).
Excluding motor vehicles, total retail sales were 4.09 per cent lower than February 2016.
On a month-on-month basis, retail sales rose 2.3 per cent. Excluding motor vehicles, it increased 0.4 per cent.
The total retail sales value in February was estimated at S$3.3 billion, similar to February 2016.
Food and beverage sales were 17.4 per cent lower than the previous year, the largest fall across the retail sales sectors. Department stores, supermarkets and wearing apparel and footwear also saw large year-on-year falls of 15 per cent, 15.4 per cent and 12.5 per cent respectively from February 2016 (which had Chinese New Year fall within that period).
Petrol service stations saw an increase of 14.6 per cent compared to the previous year, and motor vehicles sales also saw strong growth with an increase of 9.4 per cent.
Sales of food and beverage services declined 7.4 per cent compared to the previous year, with the total sales value estimated at S$657 million, lower than the S$710 million in February 2016.
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.
