Taiwan's Wholesale, Retail & F&B Sales Hit Record High NT$14.31 Trillion in 2013

Taiwan's wholesale, retail and F&B sectors generated combined revenues of NT$1.2542 trillion (US$41.81 billion) in December 2013, the highest monthly record ever and posted a YoY growth of 2.8%, according to the Ministry of Economic affairs (MOEA).

Revenues of the retail sector came to NT$348.3 billion (US$11.61 billion) for the highest monthly and the sales of vehicles, including motorcycles and automobiles, contributed NT$52.6 billion (US$1.75 billion) to the sector, which was the second highest monthly. In the same month online shopping went up 9.8%.

Simmering retail sales during the month helped push up business revenues in the fourth quarter to a quarterly record high of NT$3.7036 trillion (US$123.45 billion) and the full-year revenues to an annual record high of NT$14.3077 trillion (US$476.923 billion).

K.H. Yang, deputy director general at Statistics Department of MOEA, attributed last year's high business revenues to robust private spending and strong purchasing power of  growing Taiwan-bound tourists. In 2013 the revenues of retail and F&B sectors each grew by 1.5%.

MOEA indicates that last year the annual growth of industrial production and manufacturing production both reversed to positive with the former standing at 0.75% and latter at 0.66%. In December alone, the industrial production and manufacturing production indexes both showed a sharp annual growth of 5.07%, a new high in a year.

Yang forecast that the business revenues in the first quarter of 2014 will  likely break the record of NT$3.4547 trillion (US$115.16 billion) seen in the first quarter of 2011. (JL)