Singapore’s retail sales excluding motor vehicles rose at the fastest pace in three months, a sign that consumer spending is holding up even as easing demand for the nation’s drugs and electronics hurt growth last quarter.

The index measuring purchases excluding automobiles climbed 6.2% from a year earlier in August, after gaining 6% in July, the Statistics Department said today. Including vehicles, which are sold subject to government caps, total retail sales fell 1.2 percent, less than the median forecast for a 5.3% decline in a Bloomberg News survey of 8 economists.

 

Singapore’s services industry is still expanding even after weakening overseas demand for manufactured goods caused the economy to contract last quarter. The city state added more than 61,000 jobs from January to June while tourists are flocking to new attractions including two casino resorts run by Genting Singapore Plc and Las Vegas Sands Corp.

 

“Record inflows of tourists into Singapore during August kept the cash registers busy in the shopping centers,” Alvin Liew, a Singapore-based economist at Standard Chartered Plc, said before the report. “Excluding car sales, the retail outlook continues to look healthy on strong employment and wage growth.”

 

Adjusted for seasonal factors, overall retail sales rose 2.2% from July, today’s report showed.

 

Singapore controls pollution and congestion on its roads by selling limited permits for each automobile category, and the quotas may distort sales figures because motor vehicles are the biggest component of the retail index, accounting for a third of the gauge.