Fri, Feb 26, 2021 page12

• Retail sales ‘defy’ MOEA forecasts

  • By Angelica Oung / Staff reporter
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  Retail sales “defied expectations” to rise to NT$368.1 billion (US$13.03 billion) last month, a 3.6 percent month-on-month increase and up 3.6 percent year-on-year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.

  “We actually expected negative growth, but strong auto sales, online shopping and demand for cold-weather related items drove growth,” Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Huang Wei-jie (黃偉傑) said at a press conference in Taipei.

  Domestic demand is “on a steady upward trend” in general, Huang said.

  

  A mother pushes her child in a stroller past a shop window advertising 5G smartphones in Taipei yesterday.

  Photo: CNA

  Auto sales increased 29.2 percent year-on-year, driven by pent-up demand for foreign vehicles. Overall, people spent a combined NT$71.7 billion on vehicles last month, a new monthly record.

  A desire to avoid public transportation amid lingering COVID-19 concerns also encouraged vehicle buying, in addition to government purchase incentives that expired last month, Huang said.

  “COVID-19 and other factors disrupted the supply of foreign vehicles until recently, which is why we are seeing such a strong rebound,” he said.

  Non-storefront retail sales totaled NT$31.8 billion, up 22.7 percent year-on-year, mostly accounted for by an increase in online and mail-order shopping.

  Wholesale sales were NT$993.6 billion, flat month-on-month, but up 23.1 percent year-on-year due to a lower comparison base, as the Lunar New Year holiday fell in January last year, decreasing the number of workdays.

  However, the beleaguered food and beverage sector posted sales of NT$70.2 billion, down 2.3 percent from a month earlier and 15.3 percent from a year earlier.

  “We expected that canceled year-end parties to be partially made up for by smaller restaurant gatherings, but that did not really materialize,” Huang said. “Instead, due to COVID-19 related factors, many weiya (尾牙) parties were simply canceled.”

  Huang said he expected that wholesalers would have a slower month this month due to the Lunar New Year holiday.

  A survey of vendor sentiment showed that most retailers expect a slightly slower month this month, compared with last month.

  However, food and beverage business owners expect a slight improvement this month, the survey showed.

  In other news, the nation's industrial production last month was down 3.18 percent month-on-month and up 18.81 percent year-on-year, the ministry said in a separate report yesterday.

  The production of manufacturing industry, which accounts for more than 90 percent of total industrial production, gained 19.67 percent from a year earlier but declined 3.33 percent from the previous month, it said.

  Industrial production this month is expected to fall, due to the Lunar New Year holiday, Huang said.

  “The Lunar New Year holiday meant fewer working days in February this year compared with last year, but there are positive factors, such as an increased rollout of vaccinations, which will hopefully cause global demand to return,” he said.

  The economy is “lopsided,” with tech-related sectors booming on COVID-19-related demand, while the traditional sector was dragged by the broader slowdown in global markets, he said.

  “As the effects of COVID-19 restrictions diminish, we are looking forward to a more balanced market as traditional sectors continue their recovery,” he said.
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