Taiwanese last month went shopping with a vengeance, with retail sales rising 2.5 percent year-on-year to NT$335.1 billion (US$11.36 billion), snapping a five-month losing streak, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Monday.
General merchandise sales grew 7.2 percent year-on-year, department store sales were up 10.3 percent, supermarket sales rose 6.6 percent and convenience store sales jumped 21.3 percent, ministry data showed.
The government’s Triple Stimulus Voucher program undoubtedly had an effect on the shopping binge, Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Huang Wei-jie (黃偉傑) said, before adding that the program’s impact is difficult to quantify.
“Sixty to 70 percent of the general merchandisers we surveyed said that the vouchers helped them with sales, but purchases made using the vouchers were not tracked according to purchase type,” Huang told the Taipei Times yesterday.
“All we can say is that as of July 27, NT$4.48 billion in vouchers had been redeemed for cash from banks by vendors,” he said.
The program began on July 15. Taiwanese and foreign spouses of Taiwanese were eligible to purchase NT$3,000 of vouchers for NT$1,000, which are valid until the end of this year.
People have also been dining out and buying iced drinks, with restaurant sales last month rising 1 percent year-on-year to NT$58.2 billion, the highest July figure on record.
Sales at beverage stores rose 0.5 percent year-on-year, but banquets and catered events were still in the doldrums, with revenue dropping 33.3 percent, dragging total food and beverage sales to contract 0.7 percent last month, the ministry said.
Dachrahn Wu (吳大任), a professor of economics at National Central University, said there was undeniably a boost from the vouchers, especially when business owners created voucher-specific bundles.
However, the amount of vouchers already redeemed is not a metric of the program’s success, Wu said.
“Ideally, you want the businesses that accept the vouchers to keep them in circulation, spending them like cash again,” Wu said. “That would create a multiplier effect, which means that for each dollar the government spent on the program, we get more than NT$1 in stimulus.”
Severe limits on overseas travel have created a flurry in domestic travel, he said.
“Usually about 10 million to 20 million Taiwanese travel abroad every year,” he said. “This year they have no choice but to vacation — and spend — domestically.”
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