Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 5.3 percent and 17.6 percent respectively, while sales in the wholesale sector remained weak, falling 5.7 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The retail sector recorded NT$377.8 billion (US$11.83 billion) in sales last month, up 1.6 percent from June, driven mainly by an annual increase of 15.8 percent in sales of vehicles and automotive components, as well as an 11.1 percent rise in department store sales, the ministry said.
In the first seven months of the year, retail sales totaled NT$2.61 trillion, up 8.4 percent from a year earlier, ministry data showed.
Photo: CNA
The ministry said it expects retail sales to grow between 1.5 percent and 4.5 percent annually to between NT$363.6 billion and NT$374.4 billion this month.
Sales in the food and beverage sector reached NT$89.1 billion last month, up 6.9 percent from the previous month, as more people dined out and consumed cold beverages during the summer, the ministry said.
In the first seven months of the year, food and beverage sales rose 24.9 percent year-on-year to NT$593 billion, while sales this month are projected to advance 13.5 percent to 16.5 percent to between NT$89.2 billion and NT$91.6 billion, it said.
As for the wholesale sector, sales fell for the ninth straight month to NT$977.7 billion last month, although they dropped at the slowest pace in five months, as robust demand for servers partially offset the sluggish electronics sector, the ministry said.
On a monthly basis, sales improved 1.3 percent, it added.
“The wholesale sector is expected to improve gradually, in line with the nation’s manufacturing sector,” Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Huang Wei-jie (黃偉傑) said.
Cumulative sales in the sector in the first seven months of this year fell 11.4 percent year-on-year to NT$6.59 trillion, while sales for this month are forecast to shrink at an annual rate of between 5.2 percent and 8.2 percent to between NT$953.3 and NT$984.4 billion, the ministry said.
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