The retail sales in Singapore rose by 5.1 percent in June 2006 over a year ago, according to the figures released by the Singapore Department of Statistics (SDS) on Tuesday.

The retail sales of petrol service stations and telecommunications apparatus and computers reported double-digit growth in June this year as compared with the corresponding month of last year.

The furniture and household equipment sector and the optical goods and books sector saw lower sales year-on-year in the same month.

The total retail sales value reported an estimated 2.5 billion Singapore dollars (about 1.6 billion U.S. dollars) in the sixth month of this year.

The catering trade index in June rose by 7.8 percent over the previous year, and the total value was estimated at 323.8 million Singapore dollars (about 205.1 million U.S. dollars).

Source: Xinhua