Following the 2.1 per cent year-on-year growth in the past month, retail sales in Singapore continued to march upwards in April, growing by 2.6 percent due to increases in the sales of watches and jewellery, and petrol service station sales.
On a yearly basis, watches and jewellery sales went up 14.3 per cent, whilst petrol services stations clocked in a 13 percent sales growth.
The next biggest growth came from department stores, which saw sales balloon by 7.6 per cent. Medical goods & toiletries registered a 6.6 per cent growth. Wearing apparel & footwear also saw healthy gains of 6.1 percent in sales.
Optical goods & books, computer & telecommunications equipment, recreational goods, and supermarkets reflected growths of 0.5 percent to 3.8 percent.
Meanwhile, four of the five segment registered declines. The biggest decline was seen in motor vehicles, which reported a 6.4 per cent slump in sales. Mini-marts & convenience stores also suffered from lower turnover, with sales going down 5.7 per cent.
Food retailers and furniture & household segments also reported slightly lower declines at 0.9 per cent and 0.2 per cent.
For the whole month, the retail sales value of food and beverage players were at $3.5 billion compared to $3.4 billion last year.
The sales of food & beverage services also rose in the month of April, inching 1.8% compared to the previous month. However, on a yearly basis, sales decreased 3%, with total sales value going down to $663 million compared to $683 million last year.
