SINGAPORE: Retails sales in Singapore went down 6 per cent in December as compared to the same month in 2017, according to a release from the Department of Statistics (Singstat) on Tuesday (Feb 12).
On a month-on-month basis, retail sales went down 3.4 per cent. Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales decreased 3 per cent year-on-year and 4.1 per cent month-on-month.
Year-on-year sales dropped for all retail sectors with the exception of medical goods and toiletries, which increased by 1.8 per cent.
Sales of motor vehicles saw the biggest decline year-on-year at 20.7 per cent, followed by computer and telecommunications equipment at 16.8 per cent.
Sales of department stores, supermarkets, mini-marts and convenience stores, food retailers, petrol service stations, wearing apparel and footwear, furniture and household equipment, recreational goods, watches and jewellery and optical goods and books all went down between 0.4 and 5.8 per cent.
Month-on-month, sales of supermarkets and hypermarkets, computer and telecommunications equipment and optical goods and books experienced an uptick, with increases of 0.5, 2.5 and 2.9 per cent respectively.
The food and beverage (F&B) services sector reported an increase of 4.5 per cent year-on-year and 0.6 per cent month-on-month for December.
All F&B sectors showed sales growth between 2.5 to 6.6 per cent year-on-year, with food caterers reporting the biggest increase.
On a monthly basis, aside from other eating places such as cafes, which saw a decline of 3.4 per cent, numbers for other sectors also went up between 0.3 and 5 per cent.
Total retail sales value in December 2018 was about S$4.3 billion. Online sales made up an estimated 5.5 per cent of this figure.
Meanwhile, food and beverage services took in an estimated S$925 million, an increase from the S$886 million in December 2017.
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.
