Singapore’s retail sales excluding motor vehicles gained for a 13th straight month in November as rising wages and record tourist arrivals spurred spending.

The index measuring purchases excluding automobiles climbed 5.4% from a year earlier, after gaining a revised 5.6% in October, the Statistics Department said in a statement today. Including vehicles, which are sold subject to government caps, total retail sales fell 2.4%, matching the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of eight economists.

Singapore’s services industry may drive economic expansion this year after a surge in manufacturing led to record growth in 2010. The city-state’s two casino resorts run by Genting Singapore Plc and Las Vegas Sands Corp., which have attracted millions of visitors, and falling unemployment have boosted spending at malls and restaurants.

“Strong wage gains should help support consumption at this juncture, translating into a net positive for sales,” said Vishnu Varathan, an economist at Capital Economics (Asia) Pte in Singapore. Retailers probably benefited “from some of the pre- Christmas sales,” he said.

The island nation added about 82,000 jobs in the first nine months of 2010 and its unemployment rate is at the lowest level in 2 1/2 years. Average wages before adjusting for inflation rose 5.4% in the third quarter from a year earlier.

The government forecasts the economy will expand as much as 6% this year after growing 14.7% in 2010.

Singapore’s growth this year “will support job creation and wage growth in both the manufacturing and services industries,” Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry S. Iswaran said this week.

Adjusted for seasonal factors, overall retail sales rose 0.6% from October, 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.