Retail sales in Singapore increased 5.2 percent in July on a year-on-year basis, said Singapore's Department of Statistics on Tuesday.

    Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales rose 0.8 percent in July compared with the same period in 2014. However, when compared with the previous month, retail sales decreased 2.2 percent in July. Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales increased 2.6 percent.

    The total retail sales value in July was estimated at 3.5 billion Singapore dollars (2.5 billion U.S. dollars), up from 3 billion Singapore dollars (2.14 billion U.S. dollars) in July 2014.

    Retail sales of motor vehicles registered the highest increase at 40.6 percent in July on a year-on-year basis. Watches and jewelry recorded the next highest increase at 11.7 percent, followed by medical goods and toiletries at 9.9 percent.

    On the contrary, petrol service stations recorded the highest drop of 16.4 percent in July year-on-year. This was followed by furniture and household equipment at a 5.5 percent decline, and optical goods and books with a 4.4 percent drop.

    Sales of food and beverage services declined 1 percent when compared with the previous year. However, sales of food and beverage services increased 3.1 percent in July when compared with the previous month.

    The total sales value of food and beverage services in July was estimated at 640 million Singapore dollars (456.3 million U.S. dollars), lower than the 647 million Singapore dollars (461.3 million U.S. dollars) in July 2014.

    Retail Sales Index(RSI) and the Food and Beverage Services Index(FSI) measure the short-term performance of retail and Food and Beverage service industries based on their sales records. The sales figures exclude taxes such as Goods and Services Tax(GST) and Certificates of Entitlement(COE).