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SINGAPORE (Dec 16): Singapore’s total retail sales value fell 4.3% year-on-year to $3.6 billion in October, led by a decline in motor vehicles retail sales, according to latest data by the Singapore Department of Statistics (DOS).

Motor vehicles retail sales dropped 22.7% y-o-y, due to lower COE quota for the period of August to October 2019. Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales declined 0.6%.

Other top declining industries in October include Furniture & Household Equipment, which saw sales fall 10.6% y-o-y, while sales of Optical Goods & Books and Petrol Service Stations retreated 6.9% and 6.2% respectively.

Compared to the previous month, retail sales fell 2.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis in October 2019. Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales decreased 1.5%.

DOS noted that online retail sales made up an estimated 6.1% of total retail sales value in October.

Meanwhile, Food & Beverage Services saw total sales value grow 4.5% y-o-y to $893 million, led by a 7.9% increase in turnover at Fast Food Outlets and a 6.1% rise in Restaurants turnover.

However, the better performance was partially offset by a 1.5% decline in sales of Food Caterers.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, Fast Food Outlets, Restaurants and Food Caterers recorded lower sales of between 0.8% and 2.9% in October over the previous month.

Turnover of Cafes, Food Courts & Other Eating Places increased 0.9% during this period.