SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore’s retail sales in March fell at the steepest pace in more than 20 years on an annual basis, official data showed on Tuesday, as consumption especially of discretionary items such as clothes and jewellery fell due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Retail sales fell 13.3% on a year-on-year basis, the biggest drop since September 1998, data from the Singapore Department of Statistics showed.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, retail sales declined 1.3% in March from the previous month.
(Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan and John Geddie in Singapore; Editing by Kim Coghill)
