Government revised retail sales, food and beverage indices

To reflect changes in the structure of retail trade and food & beverage services industries, the coverage and weighting patterns are revised at regular intervals.

According to Singapore Department of Statistics, during the re-basing exercise, the methodology, coverage and weights are reviewed and updated. The re-basing of the RSI and FSI series from reference year 2005 to 2010 represents the fifth re-basing of the series.

The overall sales index at current prices is a weighted average of indices from detailed industry level.

The overall RSI/FSI is then computed by combining the sales indices of the detailed industries, using the weights to measure each industry’s relative importance in the overall retail/F&B services industry.

To derive the indices at constant prices, the sales indices at current prices at detailed industry level are first deflated by appropriate price indices. These component indices at constant prices are then weighted and aggregated to derive the overall indices at constant prices.