Retail, F&B sales decline in August: SingStat

While retail sales improved since July, F&B services sales declined further.

Retail sales fell by 5.7% YoY in August, marking an improvement compared with  the 8.5% YoY drop in July, SingStat reported on 5 October.

The boost in sales was primarily owed to the motor vehicles industry, which saw an increased demand for both new and used vehicles. Without accounting for motor vehicles sales, overall retail sales declined by 8.4% in August, compared to the 7.7% figure in July.

Meanwhile, seasonally adjusted retail sales rose by 1.4%.

Conversely, food and beverage (F&B) services sales plummeted by 28.6% in August, a higher drop compared with the 25.4% decline the previous month.

The deterioration was mainly attributed to the food caterers industry, as low demand for food catering resulted in a 70.6% YoY fall in sales.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, F&B services sales diminished by 3.4%.