News
Wholesale, retail and food services sales drop in May
By ECCT staff reporters
Wholesale, retail and food services sales all fell in May compared to the same month in 2019. According to statistics posted on the website of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, sales of wholesale trade in May 2020 decreased 6.8% to NT$795.7 billion, retail trade sales decreased 5.8% to NT$300.8 billion while sales of food and beverage services were NT$61.9 billion, a decrease of 8.7% on a year-on-year basis.
However, the sales within specific retail trade categories were not all negative. While sales of fuel and related products fell 35.4% year-on-year and sales of department stores saw a drop of 6.3%, sales at hypermarkets, supermarkets and convenience stores rose by 14.2%, 8.5% and 7.3%, respectively. Moreover, sales of electronic shopping and mail-order houses rose by 22.2%.
In unrelated news, the MOEA website also reported that industrial production index increased 1.51% in May 2020 compared with the same month in 2019. Broken down by industrial division, manufacturing increased by 1.68%, mining & quarrying increased 10.72% while electricity & gas supply decreased by 1.63% and water supply decreased by 0.10%.
Another report on the MOEA website noted that export orders in May 2020 increased 0.4% to US$38.9 billion from the same month in 2019. However, given exchange rate changes, when measured in new Taiwan dollars, export orders were approximately NT$1,165.1 billion in May 2020, a decrease of 3.7% on a year-on-year basis.
