Business receipts climbed 4.1% in Q4 2018

The infocomm segment’s business receipts led the growth and jumped 7.2%.

Business receipts in Singapore’s services sector edged up 4.1% YoY in Q4 2018, according to data from the Department of Statistics (SingStat). On a QoQ basis, business receipts inched up 2.2% compared to Q3.

All segments except the education services and recreation & personal services industries registered higher revenues. The information & communications services industry recorded the highest growth of 7.2% due mainly to firms engaged in computer programming & consultancy services and information service activities such as web hosting and web portal services, SingStat said.

Other industries which registered higher turnover included financial & insurance services at 6.9% and transport & storage services at 6.1%. On the other hand, the Education Services and Recreation & Personal Services industries reported a decline in revenue of 2.6% and 1.3% respectively.

On a QoQ basis, overall business receipts grew 2.2% in Q4 2018 compared to Q3. The transport & storage services industry registered the largest QoQ increase in revenue of 5%. The increase is attributed mainly to the water transport segment, which received higher demand for their services.

On the other hand, the recreation & personal services industry recorded a decrease of 4% in turnover, due mainly to firms in the attractions segment. Similarly, the business receipts for the education services industry recorded a decrease of 3.8%.