FX.co ★ Taiwan Retail Sales Rebound in August After Four-Month Decline

Retail sales in Taiwan experienced a modest increase of 0.4% year-on-year in August 2025, marking a turnaround after four consecutive months of decline and recovering from a significant 3.6% decrease in July. This growth was primarily fueled by accelerated sales in cultural and recreational goods within specialized stores, which improved to 9.2% from 7.6% in July, as well as in general merchandise stores, which saw an increase from 0.8% to 2.9%. Notably, the rate of decline slowed in categories such as automobiles and motorcycles, which fell by 4.5%, improving from a much steeper decline of 20.2%; communication equipment and household appliances, with a reduction of 1.5% from 3.7%; fuel and related products, easing to a decrement of 7.2% from 8.8%; and household appliances and goods in specialized stores, which saw a slight dip of 0.6% compared to 2.3% previously. Conversely, growth in retail trade not conducted in physical locations, like stores or stalls, slowed slightly to 4.5% from 5.0%, as did electronic shopping and mail-order houses, with a rise of 6.0% down from 7.1%, and other retail sales, which grew by 7.0%, compared to 7.3%. In a notable shift, construction material sales decreased by 1.3%, reversing from a prior increase of 3.8%. On a month-to-month basis, retail activity saw an uptick of 0.8% in August, recovering from a 0.4% decline in July.