Singapore October retail sales fall 0.1%

Singapore’s retail sales in October fell for a second consecutive month from a year earlier, due to a drop in sales of motor vehicles and at food retailers, data showed on Tuesday.

Total retail sales fell 0.1 percent from a year earlier, after a revised 0.6 percent decline in the previous month, according to data from the Singapore Department of Statistics.

Sales of motor vehicles fell 3.8 percent in October from the year earlier, while sales at food retailers fell 3.9 percent in the same month from the year ago.

This comes after retail sales contracted for the first time in seven months in September.

Singapore, one of the world’s most expensive places to own a vehicle, announced in October that it will not allow any growth in its car population from February, citing the city-state’s land scarcity and billions of dollars in planned public transport investments.

On a month-on-month and seasonally adjusted basis, total retail sales rose 1.5 percent in October after falling 4.2 percent in the previous month.