But 25% rise is about half of last year's rate - a sign of economic slowdown
By
Tessa Wong
Though official GSS spending figures will be released only next month, the Mastercard report is generally seen as a good indicator of how the Government's numbers will turn out. -- EDWIN KOO/THE STRAITS TIMES
DESPITE retailers' worries that shoppers here would cut spending as rising costs bite, Singaporeans actually spent more at this year's Great Singapore Sale (GSS) compared to last year.
Figures released by Mastercard yesterday showed that Singaporean cardholders spent US$452.7 million (S$637 million) at the sale, an increase of close to 25 per cent over last year.
But this rise fares poorly against last year's, when spending grew at 45 per cent over the year before. The latest figures indicate that growth is slowing.
The story is the same with tourists: They spent US$248.4 million at this year's sale, a mere 11 per cent rise over last year's figure.
This growth rate is the lowest since Mastercard began releasing numbers in 2005, and lags far behind last year's 57 per cent figure.
Mr Danny Yeo, Knight Frank's director of retail, said this in line with a general slowdown of the economy. He warned that there would be repercussions for the retail scene if the trend continued for a prolonged period of six to 12 months.
'Retailers will be cautious in expansion, thus slowing down rental growth and also take-up rate of retail premises.'
Meanwhile, the lacklustre growth in tourism spending mirrors the recent slowdown in arrivals after healthy growth for over four years: June saw the first dip in tourism arrivals in 51 months.
Ms Lau Chuen Wei, executive director of the Singapore Retailers' Association, said the slow growth was 'not surprising because we are measuring against last year, which was a spectacular year'.
'The economy was doing well not just in Singapore, but in other countries too back then,' she added.
Though official GSS spending figures will be released only next month, the Mastercard report is generally seen as a good indicator of how the Government's numbers will turn out.
Another trend that the report threw up: The number of transactions for all cardholders fell for the first time since 2005, by 2 per cent.
This could mean that while people are still willing to spend big, they are also more careful about how they spend.
