Services sectors' sales up 8.6% in Q4 2017

The information & communications services industry grew 13.6% and led the sector’s growth.

Overall business receipts in Singapore grew 8.6% YoY in Q4 2017, the Department of Statistics revealed.

According to its data, all services industries performed better in the fourth quarter of 2017, with the information & communications services industry reporting the largest growth of 13.6%.

Similarly, business receipts rose for the education services (13.3%), health & social services (11.9%), recreation & personal services (9.8%), financial & insurance services (9.2%), business services (7.1%) and transport & storage services (4.3%) industries.

On a QoQ basis, turnover of the services sector’s business receipts rose 4.9%. The education industry’s turnover grew 10.1%, the highest amongst sectors.

This was followed by the business services (6.1%), information & communications services (5.6%), recreation & personal services (4.9%), financial & insurance services (3.6%) and transport & storage services (3.2%) industries.

Improvement in business receipts was also parallel Singapore's services trade growth. It moved out of the lull as it grew by 4.7% and reached a total of $463.3b in 2017. According to International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, both services exports and imports increased by 4.2% and 5.1%, respectively.