S'pore business receipts down 4.4% in Q3 from a year ago
By Jonathan Peeris, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 26 November 2009 1453 hrs

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SINGAPORE: Singapore's business receipts index, which measures activity in the services industry, fell 4.4 per cent in the third quarter from a year ago.

The data released by the Department of Statistics showed that turnover of transport and storage services had the highest drop - down 18.9 per cent from the same quarter in 2008.

Turnover of both real estate services and education services edged down by 1.2 per cent, while those of business services slipped 1.1 per cent.

The industries that showed increases in their revenue included health and social work activities, which rose 4.6 per cent.

Likewise, higher turnover was reported by financial and insurance services which rose 2.7 per cent, and information and communications services which rose 0.8 per cent.

Compared to the previous quarter, the business receipts index rose by a marginal 0.7 per cent.

The index measures income earned by businesses in areas such as transport, telecommunications, medicine, real estate, finance and insurance.

- CNA/sc