Singapore apparel, footwear retail sales surge 42% in February

Singapore’s retail sales in February rose from a year earlier, thanks to a surge in sales of wearing apparel and footwear, data showed on Thursday.

Total retail sales rose 8.6 percent from a year earlier, after falling a revised 7.8 percent in the previous month, according to data from the Singapore Department of Statistics.

Sales of wearing apparel and footwear grew 42.4 percent in February from a year ago, after contracting 15.3 percent the month earlier.

On a month-on-month and seasonally adjusted basis however, total retail sales fell 1.7 percent in February after falling a revised 4.9 percent in the previous month, due to a continued fall of motor vehicles sales.

Sales of motor vehicles fell 15.2 percent in February from the month before after showing an on-month contraction of 20.9 percent in January.

Singapore, one of the world’s most expensive places to own a vehicle, announced in October last year that it would 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.