As Taiwan shifts its COVID-19 prevention policy from containment to coexisting with the virus, domestic retailers along with food and beverage businesses are expected to continue seeing annual sales growth this month, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Thursday.
“With businesses strengthening marketing efforts, coupled with the arrival of festive events and graduation season, the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is believed to be largely reduced,” the ministry said in a statement.
“Additionally, given a relatively low comparison base in the same month of the previous year, the retail and food-and-beverage sectors should see sales grow further this month from a year ago,” it said.
Photo: CNA
Retail sales grew 2.7 percent year-on-year to NT$319.7 billion (US$10.75 billion) last month, following a 4.7 percent annual increase in April, the ministry’s data showed on Thursday.
On a monthly basis, sales dropped 7 percent, as people became more cautious to shop outside of the home as the number of local COVID-19 cases was rising, the ministry said.
It attributed last month’s annual sales growth to clothing and apparel retailers, department stores, and sellers of household goods and appliances, which saw sales rise 20.4 percent, 15.6 percent and 15.1 percent year-on-year respectively, as consumer traffic dropped significantly a year ago when Taiwan issued a nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert.
Another driving force was fuel products, which reported an annual sales increase of 11 percent on the back of rising oil prices, it said.
Sales of automobiles, motorcycles, auto parts and auto accessories decreased 8.3 percent annually last month due to supply constraints, while supermarkets and companies supplying information technology and electronics products posted declines of 9.5 percent and 3.3 percent respectively last month because of a higher comparison basis last year, the data showed.
Food and beverage sales expanded 14.4 percent year-on-year to NT$57.5 billion, a reversal from an annual decline of 5.8 percent in April, as restaurants reported that sales increased 13 percent and beverage outlets had sales advanced 28.6 percent from a year earlier, while catering service providers developed new sales channels that led to growth of 1.7 percent last month, the ministry said.
Compared with April, food and beverage sales dropped 7.4 percent as people reduced gatherings and limited on-site dining and drinking amid a resurgence in COVID-19 cases, it said.
In the first five months of this year, retail sales increased 3.9 percent year-on-year to NT$1.71 trillion, and food and beverage sales grew 4.3 percent annually to NT$337 billion, both the highest for the period on record, the data showed.
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