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Singapore January Retail Sales Recover

(RTTNews) – Singapore retail sales in January grew for the first time in more than a year driven by auto sales.

According to data released by the Department of Statistics on Monday, retail sales grew 2.3% year-on-year in January, following a decline of 4.9% in December. The decrease for December was revised from 5%. January’s growth was larger than the consensus forecast of 1.1%.

The report showed that sales of watches and jewellery, telecommunications apparatus and computers, furniture and household equipment, petrol service stations and optical goods and books increased by between 14.3% and 27.9% in January from a year ago. Motor vehicles and recreational goods also reported sales increases of 5.4% and 2% respectively over a year ago. On the other hand, sales of food and beverages and supermarket reported decreases.

Sales grew by a seasonally adjusted 5.8% in January from the previous month, reversing a revised 1.2% fall in December. Economists were looking for a monthly fall of 4.5%.

Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales rose 4.6% in January compared to a 0.8% drop in December. Motor vehicles and petrol service stations recorded higher sales of 14.5% and 10%, respectively in January. Meanwhile, sales of telecommunications apparatus and computers declined 5.6% and those of medical goods and toiletries dropped 3.4%.

Earlier in the day, the Ministry of Manpower said Singapore experienced employment growth amid an economic recession in 2009. “The labour market was more resilient than in previous downturns, supported by the Resilience Package and concerted tripartite efforts to save jobs,” the ministry said.

For the whole of 2009, total employment increased 37,600 or 1.3%. In the fourth quarter, total employment grew 37,500, more than double the gains of 14,000 in the preceding quarter. In a report released on January 28, the ministry had estimated employment growth of 38,800 for the whole of 2009 and for fourth quarter at 38,700.

The overall unemployment rate fell to a seasonally adjusted 2.1% in December 2009 from 3.4% in September. There were 59,800 unemployed residents in December.

The government expects the city-state economy to grow at 4.5% to 6.5% this year after shrinking 2% last year. The government had upgraded the estimate from the earlier 3% to 5% projection. A survey of professional forecasters published by the Monetary Authority of Singapore said the economy is forecast to expand at a faster pace of 6.5% this year and the jobless rate is expected to reach 2% by year-end.

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