SINGAPORE, March 12 — Singapore's retail sales in January fell from a year earlier, due to a drop in motor vehicle sales, data showed today.

Total retail sales fell 8.4 per cent from a year earlier in January, after rising a revised 6.3 per cent in the previous month, according to data from the Singapore Department of Statistics.

Sales of motor vehicles fell 9.8 per cent from the year before and fell 20.9 per cent from December.

Singapore, one of the world's most expensive places to own a vehicle, announced in October last year that it would not allow any growth in its car population from February, citing the city-state's land scarcity and billions of dollars in planned public transport investments.

The on-year fall was also attributed to the Lunar New Year holidays, which fell in January last year but was celebrated February this year, Singapore Department of Statistics said in a press release.

On a month-on-month and seasonally adjusted basis, total retail sales fell 5.4 per cent in January after rising a revised 0.6 per cent in the December. — Reuters