Singapore's retail sales declined 8.2 per cent in June 2008 for the ninth consecutive month at a time when the economy of city-state has shown some signs of recovery beating the adverse impact of global slowdown. A recently released report by Statistics Department of the country said that sales dropped by 1.5 per cent excluding sales of motor vehicles.

However, retail sales, hit by job losses and slump in tourist arrivals, grew by 2.3 percent in June 2009 against the previous month on monthly basis. Motor vehicles and petrol service stations too reported a decline of 22.8 per cent and 19.9 per cent in the overall turnover in the month of June.

Singapore also reported decline in sales of watches and jewellery in the reporting period besides decline in sales of recreational goods, optical goods and books, wearing apparel and footwear, and food and beverages. However, sales of telecommunications apparatus and computers grew 14 percent in July 2009.

Hoping shining future ahead, David Cohen, an analyst with consultancy Action Economics in Singapore, said, "With the recovering economy, the labor picture should also improve and perhaps the tourist traffic as well."