Singapore retail sales rebounded in July as social-distancing rules were relaxed, but there was still a year-on-year decline of 7.7 percent, excluding motor vehicle sales. That was significantly better than June’s fall of 24.2 percent and May’s 52 percent.
Month on month, seasonally adjusted retail sales increased by 19.5 percent.
Online retail sales comprised about 11 percent of the monthly total, accounting for 49.1 percent of computer and phone sales, 21.8 percent of furniture and household equipment, and 11.4 percent of supermarket sales.
In July, sales in department stores and of apparel, footwear and jewelry and watches declined by between 21 percent and 32.1 percent year on year, with those categories most affected by low tourist arrivals due to Covid-19 restricting international travel.
In contrast, sales in supermarkets rose by 28.6 percent, and of computers and phones by 27.4 percent.
Food and beverage services turnover fell by 25.4 percent, which was an improvement over June’s decline of 43.6 percent. Statistics Singapore says sales of food and beverage services reached US$486.9 million for the month, with online orders accounting for 21.1 percent of that.