Retail sales rise 2.7% YoY in March

On a month-on-month comparison, however, sales fell 1.0%.

Retail sales rose by 2.7 YoY but slipped by 1.0% MoM in March, translating to a sales value of $4.2b.

Of the total sales value, 11.7% was from online sales.

Excluding motor vehicles, which saw a 7.0% YoY increase and a 5.7% MoM drop, sales would have risen by 2.0% YoY and fallen by 0.3% MoM.

The Department of Statistics Singapore (Singstat) said most industries recorded a YoY increase in sales, resulting in an overall improvement in retail sales.

Food & Alcohol led the industries which posted sales
increase in March, with a 17.0% YoY and 15.1% MoM improvement.

Other industries which recorded sales increases were Department Stores (0.4% YoY), Cosmetics, Toiletries & Medical Goods (1.8% YoY), Recreational Goods (4.0% YoY), Supermarkets and Hypermarkets (1.2% YoY); Wearing Apparel & Footwear (1.6% YoY), Watches & Jewellery (14.1% YoY), Furniture and Household Equipment (+0.6% YoY), and Petrol Service Stations (5.4% YoY).

On the other hand, Optical Goods & Books (-2.7% YoY), Mini-marts & Convenience Stores (-3.7% YoY), and Computer & Telecommunications Equipment (-5.1% YoY) recorded a decrease in sales.

Follow the link for more news on

Department of Statistics

Singapore retail sales

Reaching the people who run Asia's businesses is harder than it used to be.

Inboxes are crowded. Attention is short. The executives you most want to reach — the founders, CFOs, and operators who actually move budgets — are the hardest to find through the usual channels. If you're building a company, a category, or a reputation, you already know this.

We've spent twenty years building the room they read. Singapore Business Review is where senior decision makers in Singapore and across Southeast Asia come for business coverage they can't get elsewhere — in print, online, and in person at the summits and roundtables we host across seven markets.

If you have something these readers should know about — a point of view worth publishing, a product worth their attention, an event worth their time — we'd like to hear what you're trying to do.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia