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Taiwan’s February sales affected by Covid-19

Taiwan

Taiwan reported that the performance of the retail and F&B industries in February was worse than in January 2020. However, the growth in sales for epidemic prevention supplies and automobiles slightly pulled back the losses.

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It is estimated that the sales for domestic industries in retail and F&B are expected to fall by NT$43.42 billion (US$1.44 billion) in March, while the turnover of the wholesale industry is expected to decrease by NT$39.07 billion (US$1.29 billion).

The F&B industry’s February revenue was NT$58.4 billion (US$1.93 billion), a year-on-year decrease of 17%, the largest decrease since SARS. The retail industry also fell below expected in February, showing negative growth.

Wang ShuJuan, deputy director of Taiwan’s Statistics Department of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, said that the retail industry in February is expected to have a turnover of NT$252.2 billion (US$8.34 billion), decreased by 9%. The F&B industry is expected to have NT$8.7 billion (US$28.7 million) with a decrease of 12.4%. The wholesale industry performed better than expected, with 15.9% increase in February’s turnover rate. Wang pointed out that since February was mainly affected by overseas production, manufacturing and exporting had not been affected much.

According to the survey results on industries conducted by the Census and Statistics Department, the impact of March epidemic has intensified, and the retail industry is likely to lose NT$29.97 billion (US$9.9 million), a drop of 10%. While the wholesale industry will lost NT$39.07 billion (US$1.29 billion), pulling it down by 4.7%. The three industries are likely to show negative growth.

Looking at the first two months of this year, the highest lost was in the retail industry, followed by the F&B industry. Due to the significant reduction in the performance of duty-free shops for inbound and outbound tourists, the annual decrease was more than 20%, and it can get worse in March. In additional to the delay of schools and a large number of suspended flights, the annual revenue is reduced by 16.2%.

Wang Shujuan believes that with the opening of schools, March would not loss so much. The department store industry’s performance in the first two months of the year also fell by 3.2%. It is afraid that the impact will be even greater in March, with an estimated decrease of NT$ 6.1 billion (US$20.1 million).

The best performer in the first two months was supermarkets, with an annual increase of 15.1%. Wang pointed out that due to Covid-19, an increasing number of people are buying ingredients to cook at home, and a tide of toilet paper hoarding in February were all reasons for growth.

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The number of locomotives has also increased by 14%. In addition to the popularity of the new car models, the industry also said that it is related to people wanting to take private transportation to avoid Covid-19. Home economy has also driven e-commerce to increase by 12.9%. According to industry estimates, the turnover in March will continued to increase.

(Source: Udn)