Retail sales rise 10.1% in Singapore

By Sara Webb Bloomberg News

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2005

SINGAPORE Retail sales in Singapore rose 10.1 percent in July from a year earlier, government figures showed Thursday, as residents bought more cars and higher visitor arrivals increased department store sales.

The increase in the Statistics Department's retail sales index compares with a 9.4 percent gain in June. Excluding vehicles, retail sales rose 9.9 percent from a year earlier, following a gain of 6.5 percent in June.

Singaporeans are spending more as Southeast Asia's fourth-biggest economy rebounded in the second quarter, creating more jobs. The economy expanded at an annual 18 percent pace in the second quarter following a 4.6 percent first-quarter contraction. The city received a record 876,561 visitors in July, up 9.2 percent from a year earlier.

"Car sales have been holding up retail sales this year," Song Seng Wun, an economist at CIMB-GK Research in Singapore, said before the data was released. "We've had the strongest rise in tourist numbers in several months and that's probably contributing to sales."

Singapore held its so-called Great Singapore Sale, an annual shopping festival which attracts both local and overseas shoppers, between May 27 and July 24 this year. Visitor arrivals and spending got an additional boost this year from the International Olympic Committee, which met in the city from July 6-9 to pick the host of the 2012 Summer Games.

The "retail trade industry performed well in July 2005 as Great Singapore Sale went on till late July," the Statistics Department said in its news release. Most sectors reported higher sales compared with the previous month, it said.

The $107 billion economy added 14 percent more jobs than originally estimated in the second quarter, helped by a recovery in the economy and a positive business outlook for the next six months, the Ministry of Manpower said in a statement Monday.

The economy added 31,700 jobs in the three months ended June, higher than the 27,700 the ministry estimated in August and almost double the number of jobs created in the first quarter.

The report Thursday suggested high oil prices had not curbed Singaporeans' spending, Song said.

Adjusted for seasonal factors, retail sales in July fell 3 percent from the previous month, the Department of Statistics said Thursday. Excluding cars, the index rose 2 percent from June, the government said.

Vehicle sales in July rose 10.2 percent from a year earlier based on current prices, compared with a gain of 12.5 percent in June.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in his National Day message in August that his government expected the $107 billion economy to expand by between 3.5 percent and 4.5 percent this year. The economy expanded 8.4 percent in 2004.


SINGAPORE Retail sales in Singapore rose 10.1 percent in July from a year earlier, government figures show