Retail sales down 5.3% to $4.1b in January

Sales from motor vehicles saw the largest decline and crashed 33.6%.

Retail sales dipped 5.3% YoY to $4.1b in January despite a 0.1% MoM rise, according to data from the Department of Statistics (SingStat). Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales increased 0.6% YoY.

Of these, online retail sales made up 5.8% YoY of the monthly figure. Online retail sales of the computer & telecommunications equipment, furniture & household equipment industries and supermarkets & hypermarkets made up 25.9%, 10.9% and 7.8% of the total sales of their respective industry over the same period.

Sales of motor vehicles crashed 33.6% YoY in January, corresponding to the lower COE quota. Similarly, the furniture & household equipment and optical goods & books industries registered declines in sales of 16% and 9.4%, respectively, due mainly to lower demand.

In contrast, supermarkets & hypermarkets, food & alcohol and wearing apparel & footwear industries registered growths in sales of between 6.4% and 8.7%, due partly to increased spending during the Chinese New Year festive season.

On a MoM basis, motor vehicles, the cosmetics, toiletries & medical goods industry and petrol service stations recorded growths in sales of between 2.4% and 4.3%. Meanwhile, sales of department stores, as well as the food & alcohol and wearing apparel & footwear industries fell between 3.8% and 11.4% MoM during the same period.

On the other hand, food & beverage (F&B) services grew by 9.1% YoY to $963m in January, thanks to the Chinese New Year festive season. Online food & beverage sales made up an estimated 9.8%.