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SINGAPORE – The retail sector in Singapore continued to recover from the Covid-19 crisis, with the sales slump in July easing annually, reflecting the relaxation of circuit breaker measures in late June.
Retail sales fell 8.5 percent in July after a revised 27.7 percent decline in June, figures released Friday (Sept. 4) by the Statistics Department showed. Excluding motor vehicles, sales fell 7.7 percent.
On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, retail sales increased 27.4 percent in July due to a lower base in June. Most of the physical stores were closed until June 18.
Excluding motor vehicles, seasonally adjusted retail sales increased 19.5 percent.
Statistics Singapore estimated the total value of retail sales at $ 3.3 billion in July, of which online retail sales accounted for 11 percent.
Sales in supermarkets and hypermarkets increased 28.6% year-on-year, while sales of computer and telecommunications equipment grew 27.4%.
However, department stores, as well as those of clothing, footwear, watches and jewelery registered falls in sales of between 21% and 32.1%, since they continued to be affected by the low arrival of tourists.
Sales of food and beverage services fell 25.4 percent year-on-year, an improvement from the 43.6 percent decline recorded in June. On a seasonally adjusted basis, F&B service sales increased 29.2 percent from June.
The month-on-month growth was primarily attributed to the lower base in June, when F&B stores operated on a take-out or delivery basis through June 18.
The total value of sales of F&B services in July was estimated at $ 665 million. Of these, online food and beverage sales accounted for about 21.1 percent.
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