With the gradual easing of COVID-19 control measures and the effects of the government’s stimulus voucher program, domestic retailers along with food and beverage businesses are expected to experience a continued rebound this quarter, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Friday.
“The retail industry has gradually stabilized and the consumer traffic at physical store channels has returned, leading retail sales to return to positive annual growth last month,” the ministry said in a statement.
Retail sales grew 1.3 percent year-on-year to NT$325.4 billion (US$11.7 billion) in September, following three consecutive months of annual contraction, the ministry’s data showed on Monday last week.
Photo: CNA
The ministry attributed September’s recovery mostly to e-commerce and mail-order sales, which rose 19.5 percent year-on-year to NT$21.5 billion, as firms adopted intensive promotional campaigns for shopping festivals and aggressively marketed on new mobile devices.
Growth in sales of automobiles, motorcycles, auto parts and accessories — increasing 6.1 percent annually to NT$57.6 billion in September, as consumers resumed purchases deferred by a local COVID-19 outbreak in the second quarter — also boosted retail sales in the month, the ministry said.
Other driving forces included fuel products, which reported an annual sales increase of 18 percent to NT$21.8 billion on the back of rising oil prices, and information technology and consumer electronics, which posted an 11.9 percent rise to NT$21.1 billion due to launches of new mobile devices, the data showed.
Food and beverage sales fell 11.2 percent from a year earlier to NT$57.3 billion, a fifth consecutive month of annual contraction despite a steady improvement since May, the ministry said.
“The food and beverage sector registered an annual sales decrease in September as business and banquet activities had not fully recovered,” the ministry said. “It is also because the base period of the previous year was relatively high.”
The pace of slowdown had improved from declines of 25.7 percent in August and 38.8 percent in July, after a level 3 COVID-19 alert was downgraded to level 2 in late July, resulting in relaxed restrictions on on-site dining and drinking, along with eased social distancing measures, providing a small sales boost over previous months.
In the first nine months of this year, retail sales increased 2.2 percent year-on-year to NT$2.86 trillion, the highest for the period on record, while food and beverage sales declined 10.2 percent annually to NT$516.1 billion, the ministry’s data showed.
A survey by the ministry found that companies in the retail and food and beverage sectors were optimistic about business last month compared with September, especially after the distribution of the NT$5,000-valued Quintuple Stimulus Vouchers in September.
Sales in the wholesale sector increased 11.5 percent year-on-year to NT$1.07 trillion last month, a record high, the ministry said.
That came as growing demand for new technology applications and rising raw material prices pushed up wholesale machinery equipment sales by 18.5 percent in September, construction materials by 32.1 percent and chemical materials by 20.7 percent, it said, adding that pharmaceutical and cosmetic product sales rose 4.9 percent as hospitals and pharmacies increased their stocks.
In the first nine months of the year, total wholesale sales reached NT$8.93 trillion, an increase of 16.5 percent from the same period last year, the report said.
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