Singapore April Retail Sales Up 5.4% YoY
Singapore official data shows April retail sales rose 5.4% YoY, extending the revised 4.6% gain in March. Most retail sectors recorded year-on-year growth in sales in April. The increase was led by petrol service stations, recreational goods, and motor vehicles, parts and accessories. The April performance exceeded private sector economists' expectations. The median market forecast from Bloomberg's poll of private sector analysts was a 4.4% YoY increase.
Key Metrics: Ex-Motor Vehicles and MoM SA
- YoY: 5.4%
- YoY (ex-motor vehicles): 4.5%
- MoM SA: 0.3%
- MoM SA (ex-motor vehicles): 0.4%
Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales rose 4.5% YoY, accelerating from March's 3% expansion. Seasonally adjusted month-on-month, retail sales grew 0.3% in April, slowing from March's 3.4% expansion.
Retail Category Performance: Gains and Declines
Total sales: S$4.3 billion. Year-on-year, 11 of 14 categories recorded sales growth.
- Petrol service stations: 14.4%
- Recreational goods: 12.3%
- Motor vehicles: 10.7%
- Wearing apparel and footwear: 7.8%
- Watches and jewellery: 6.4%
- Cosmetics, toiletries and medical goods: 6.2%
- Supermarkets and hypermarkets: 5.8%
- Optical goods and books: 5.1%
- Computer and telecommunications equipment: 2.8%
- Mini-marts and convenience stores: 2.5%
- Furniture and household equipment: 1.4%
Categories with YoY declines:
- Food and alcohol: -0.1%
- Department stores: -1.1%
- Others: -6.6%
F&B Services Growth Moderates
F&B services metrics:
- YoY: 0.4%
- MoM SA: 1.1%
MoM SA subcategories:
- Fast-food outlets: 3.2%
- Cafes: 2.4%
- Food caterers: 1.5%
- Restaurants: 1.2%
- Food courts and other eating places: -3.6%
Extension: Josephine Teo on AI and Employment Synergy
In the same page, Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo stated that AI should "support and serve humans" rather than requiring people to adapt to technology. Against the backdrop of rising global concerns over AI-driven layoffs, she emphasized Singapore's "human-centric" approach to AI deployment: job redesign and large-scale skills retraining, building on existing programs like SkillsFuture. She also noted that advanced AI tools and industry models should not operate in a vacuum; they rely on a skilled workforce to guide, supervise, and safely integrate into existing workflows. On talent and enterprise support, the minister highlighted the National AI Impact Programme, aiming to train 100,000 "AI-bilingual" professionals and support 10,000 enterprises in meaningful AI integration, covering not only large multinationals but also SMEs (99% of Singapore firms, employing 70% of the workforce). Additionally, she discussed the potential impact of geopolitical uncertainty on the digital economy, urging that uncertainty should not paralyze action, and stressed maintaining connections and collaboration opportunities with partners in the US, Europe, and China, including capacity building in cross-border data flows.
