Singapore, Mar 4 (IANS): Singapore's retail sales increased by 11.8 per cent year on year in January 2022, compared to the revised 6.7 per cent year-on-year increase recorded in the previous month, the Department of Statistics (DOS) announced on Friday.

Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales grew by 15.8 per cent in January this year, compared to the 8.6 per cent growth last December, reports Xinhua news agency.

The DOS said that the improvement in retail sales performance this January was mainly attributed to the increased spending prior to Chinese New Year which was in early February this year, while pre-Chinese New Year spending in 2021 was mainly in February as the festival was in February last year.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, retail sales fell by 2.5 per cent in the first month of 2022 over the previous month.

The estimated total value of retail sales in January 2022 was about S$4.2 billion ($3 billion). Of these, online retail sales made up an estimated 12.9 per cent, lower than the revised 14.4 per cent recorded in December 2021 when there were major online shopping events.

The DOS also reported that the sales of food and beverage services increased by 9.5 per cent year on year in January, compared to the revised 7.3 per cent increase in the previous month.

On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, Singapore's sales of food and beverage services decreased by 3.5 per cent this January.

The sales value was estimated at S$829 million in January, of which the proportion of online sales was estimated at 29.1 per cent, higher than the 28.6 per cent recorded last December.