Singapore’s retail sales declined the least in 11 months in November as year-end holidays drew tourists and an economic recovery boosted consumer spending.

 

The retail sales index slid 1.4% from a year earlier after falling a revised 4.6% in October, the Statistics Department said today. The median estimate of nine economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 2.2% decline.

 

Singapore visitor arrivals jumped the most in three years in November as the Hari Raya Haji holiday attracted tourists from Malaysia and Indonesia. The $182 billion economy, which grew 3.5% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, is improving after a “volatile” 2009, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Dec. 31.

 

“It is beginning to look as though retail spending in Singapore is finally turning,” said Robert Prior-Wandesforde, senior Asia economist at HSBC Holdings Plc in Singapore. “With the labor market also on the mend, interest rates low and exports recovering, the outlook for Singapore consumption is bright.”

 

Singapore employers are increasing hiring as the economy improves, according to a Ministry of Manpower report last month. Job vacancies rose a seasonally adjusted 46% in the third quarter from the previous three months.

 

Singapore Press Holdings, the city’s biggest newspaper publisher, said Dec. 1 that it will restore 50% of the pay cuts introduced in April and give special one-off payments to its workers.

 

Visitor arrivals gained 8.4% to 830,000 in November from a year earlier, according to the Singapore Tourism Board. The island’s services industry grew 3.7% last quarter from a year earlier, after falling 2.2% in the previous three months, the government estimates.

 

Consumer spending may rise 4.5% this year after a 1.2% decline in 2009, HSBC predicts.

 

Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales rose 4% in November from a year earlier, after a revised 1.1% drop in October, today’s report showed. Adjusted for seasonal factors, sales gained 1.2% from October.

 

Department-store sales by companies including Metro Holdings Ltd. grew 7.2% from a year earlier, and supermarket sales increased 1.3%. Vehicle sales fell 16%, while purchases at gas stations advanced 3%.