Retail sales rose 19% yoy in February

Car sales singlehandedly rallied the retail sales index from a tepid 1.8% yoy growth last month, but what's the big caveat?

Motor vehicles indeed shot up 70.5% from its year-ago level, but the government attributed the strong growth less to recovering sales confidence than to a "a low base effect with the new Lunar New Year and hence fewer trading days in february last year."

Taking out the skewing results of car sales, retail sales ex-motor vehicles grew only 7.7% yoy in February 2011 from 3.1% on the back of more robust sales in the petrol service stations and medical goods & toiletries retail sub-sectors.

Here's more from the Department of Statistics Singapore:

Retail Sales. Retail sales (seasonally adjusted) decreased 2.0% in February 2012 compared to January 2012. Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales decreased 1.8%. Compared to a year ago, retail sales rose 19.0% in February 2012. Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales increased 7.7%.

Retail Sales by Sector. Month-on-Month Change (Seasonally Adjusted). After seasonal adjustment, retail sales of watches & jewellery and telecommunications apparatus & computers declined 11.5% and 9.7% respectively in February 2012 over January 2012.

Retailers of optical goods & books, furniture & household equipment and motor vehicles also recorded decreases of between 2.5% and 4.8% over the previous month.

On the other hand, retail sales of wearing apparel & footwear and food & beverages rose 7.6% and 7.0% respectively in February 2012. Provision & sundry shops, supermarkets and department stores also registered increases in sales of between 2.0% and 4.3% compared to the previous month.

Year-on-Year Change. Compared to February 2011, retailers of motor vehicles reported strong year-on-year growth of 70.5% in February 2012. The strong growth was partly due to the low base effect with the Lunar New Year and hence fewer trading days in February last year.

Retailers of medical goods & toiletries and petrol service stations also recorded double-digit year-on-year growth in sales of 24.1% and 19.3% respectively.

Other retail sectors that reported year-on-year increases in Feb 2012 included furniture & household equipment (8.2%), telecommunications apparatus & computers (7.3%), recreational goods (6.7%), watches & jewellery (5.6%), department stores (4.5%), provision & sundry shops (3.7%), optical goods & books (3.6%), supermarkets (2.3%) and wearing apparel & footwear (2.1%).