Singapore’s retail sales drop 1.2% YoY in April

Singapore’s retail sales were reported to have decreased at an annualized rate of 1.2% in April, following a revised up 2.8% surge in the preceding month.

April has marked the first drop in retail sales since December 2023 and also the most considerable one since February 2022.

In April, sales were lower for furniture and household equipment (-2% YoY compared to 0.6% rise in March), department stores (-8.5% YoY compared to 0.4% increase in March), recreational goods (-7.3% YoY versus 4% rise in March), convenience stores (-7.4% YoY compared to -3.7% YoY in March), optical goods and books stores (-5.3% YoY versus -2% YoY in March), watches & jewelry (-1.1% YoY versus 15.3% YoY rise in March) and for computer & telecommunications equipment (-1.3% YoY versus 5.6% YoY rise in March).

In month-over-month terms, retail sales in the country went down 2.7% in April, or at the sharpest rate since January 2023, data by Statistics Singapore showed.

The Singaporean Dollar was little changed on the day against its US counterpart, with the USD/SGD currency pair last trading at 1.3472.