Revenue in the nation’s retail sector in the first two months of the year rose 4.6 percent on an annual basis to NT$713.1 billion (US$24.45 billion), as buying picked up steam during the Lunar New Year holiday, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Friday.
Retail revenue was the highest January-February figure since the ministry started keeping records in 1953 for domestic trade, which includes the retail, wholesale and restaurant sectors, it said.
The ministry reported combined data for the two-month period to screen out the effect of the holiday, as it fell in February this year but in January last year.
Last month alone, retail sales grew 15.7 percent annually to NT$350 billion, the ministry said.
Retail sales of general merchandise — including those sold at department stores, supermarkets, hypermarkets and convenience stores — is a closely watched gauge of household consumer confidence and the ministry’s tallies showed that sales increased 5.5 percent to NT$213.9 billion in the first two months.
The tallies showed that department stores led retail sales in the first two months at NT$54.9 billion (up 2.1 percent year-on-year), followed by convenience stores at NT$53.3 billion (up 7 percent), hypermarkets at NT$39.6 billion (up 7.6 percent) and supermarkets at NT$36.4 billion (up 8.4 percent).
By product categories, sales of cars, motorbikes and auto parts/accessories rose 6.8 percent year-on-year to NT$108 billion in the first two months, on the back of local dealers’ new model launches, Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Wang Shu-chuan (王淑娟) said.
Cumulative sales in the electronics and home appliances sector rose 10.6 percent from a year earlier to NT$64.2 billion in the two-month period, while sales in the textile and clothing sector jumped 3.6 percent annually to NT$51.2 billion, Wang said.
Meanwhile, revenue in the restaurant and beverage sector also reached a record high of NT$81.8 billion, up 2.8 percent year-on-year, backed by strong holiday spending.
As for revenue generated by the wholesale sector, the latest statistics showed that aggregate sales gained 3.7 percent year-on-year to NT$1.56 trillion in the first two months, but the number for last month alone decreased 4 percent to NT$670.4 billion, which the ministry blamed on fewer working days.
The ministry forecast that revenue for the wholesale sector this month would decline 2 percent year-on-year due to a relatively high comparison base last year, while retail sector sales are expected to grow 2 percent, and the restaurant and beverage sector might see revenue increase 3 percent, it added.
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