Retail Sales Index – May 2021

July 7, 2021

Retail sales increased 79.7% in May 2021 on a year-on-year basis, compared to the 54.0% increase recorded in April 2021. The large year-on-year growth in May 2021 was attributed to the low base in May 2020 when the Circuit Breaker measures were put in place to contain the COVID-19 outbreak, and physical stores were closed for the whole month. Retail sales, however, continued to be below pre-COVID levels. Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales rose 61.6% in May 2021, compared to the 39.2% growth in April 2021. On a seasonally adjusted basis, retail sales fell 6.8% in May 2021 over the previous month. Excluding motor vehicles, seasonally adjusted retail sales declined 5.2% compared to April 2021.

The estimated total retail sales value in May 2021 was about $3.3 billion. Of this, online retail sales made up an estimated 13.7%, compared to the 11.2% recorded in April 2021. Excluding motor vehicles, the total retail sales value was about $2.8 billion, where online retail sales made up 16.1%. Online retail sales of the Computer & Telecommunications Equipment, Furniture & Household Equipment and Supermarkets & Hypermarkets industries made up 54.4%, 30.7% and 12.1% of the total sales of their respective industry.

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