Taiwan's Wholesale, Retail, F&B Sales Hit New High of NT$1.2 Trillion in October

Taipei, Nov. 29, 2010 (CENS)--Taiwan's wholesale, retail and F&B (food and beverage) sectors generated combined revenues of NT$1.2 trillion (US$37.5 billion) in October, hitting a new monthly high since 1999, according to the statistics released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).

The same tallies showed that retail sales came to NT$308 billion (US$9.63 billion) in October, also a record high and up 7.11% from a year earlier. The sales rise in retail sector was mainly caused by hectic sales in auto market and department stores, with the former seeing a sharp annual growth of 17.14%.

In the first 10 months, the number of newly licensed vehicles reached 264,000, up 21% from the corresponding figure of last year; and of which, the number of imported autos sharply rose by 33% and that of locally-made ones increased by 18%. For the entire year the number of newly licensed vehicles is very likely to grow to 320,000 units.

M. N. Tsai, deputy director general at Statistics Department of MOEA, indicated the monthly retail sales have exceeded NT$300 billion (US$9.38 billion) only for four times, with two of them triggered by the incentives offered by the government to stimulate the consumer market. One was in January 2009, when the government issued shopping vouchers to all the nationals to stimulate domestic spending and revive economic downturn caused by global financial tsunami, with retail sales surging to NT$301.1 billion (US$9.41 billion) that month. The other was in December of the same year, when the government canceled commodity tax on the sales of new vehicles, boosting the retail sales up to US$303.8 billion (US$9.5 billion) for the month.

MOEA predicted that this year the retail sales are very likely to reach a record high of NT$3.47 trillion (US$108.44 billion), for a projected annual growth of 5.79%.

In October alone the revenues generated by department stores broke the NT$30 billion (US$937.5 million) for the first time to reach NT$31.3 billion (US$978.13 million); while the convenience chain stores and F&B operators saw the corresponding figure stand at NT$20.1 billion (US$628.13 million) and NT$28.4 billion (US$887.5 million), respectively, with the former presenting an annual rise of 11.43% and the latter 12.03%.