Singapore’s retail sales for the month of July have expanded by 13.7% y-o-y to $3.9 billion.
Of the total sum, the number of sales made online stood at 12.7%.
Within the retail trade sector, most industries recorded y-o-y growths in sales. This was led by growths in the wearing apparel & footwear industry at 68.3%, the food & alcohol industry at 53.1% y-o-y and department stores at 42.9%.
The surge in retail sales for the wearing apparel & footwear industry was partly attributed to the higher demand for bags and footwear.
In contrast, sales of motor vehicles and supermarkets & hypermarkets saw the highest declines at a respective -13.3% and -5.8% y-o-y.
The lower sales of motor vehicles corresponded with the lower certificate of entitlement (COE) quota this year. The lower supermarkets & hypermarkets sales, as well as the lower mini-marts & convenience stores sales (-5.3%) were due to the higher demand for groceries in July 2021, during the heightened alert period.
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Accordingly, the month of July registered a growth of 18.1% y-o-y excluding motor vehicles, with a sales value of $3.4 billion.
On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month (m-o-m) basis, Singapore’s retail sales grew by 0.6% overall and 0.5% excluding motor vehicles.
Food and beverage sales
Sales of food and beverage services grew by 41.9% y-o-y and 0.1% m-o-m to a total sales value of $939 million.
Of the total food and beverage sales, 26.2% of them came from online.
The significant growth in the food and beverage industry was mainly attributable to the low base in July 2021, when there were dining-in restrictions as part of the heightened alert measures.
Within the food & beverage services sector, all industries saw y-o-y growths in sales in April, led by food caterers which surged by 133.0%.
The surge was due mainly to higher demand for both event and in-flight catering with the easing of restrictions.
Similarly, sales of restaurants, fast food outlets as well as cafes, food courts & other eating places increased by 76.8%, 22.1% and 11.5% y-o-y in July.
