Domestic wholesale trade slows
Singapore's domestic wholesale trade expanded by 11.3 per cent in the September quarter, compared with the same period a year ago, slowing from growth of 18.5 per cent in the second quarter and 23.5 per cent in the first three months of the year.
Quarter on quarter, this trade dropped by 3.7 per cent.
Excluding petroleum, domestic wholesale trade rose by a smaller 2.7 per cent from a year ago, according to Department of Statistics data released yesterday.
Quarter on quarter, it declined 0.9 per cent.
After adjusting for price changes, overall domestic wholesale trade rose by 1.3 per cent from a year ago.
On a year-on-year basis, domestic sales of petroleum and petroleum products, ship chandlers and bunkering, and chemicals and chemical products industries expanded by 23.0, 20.9 and 0.2 per cent respectively in the third quarter, due primarily to increases in prices of petroleum and chemical products.
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
After removing the price effect, the volume of domestic sales for the petroleum and petroleum products industry saw a smaller increase of 3.0 per cent while the chemicals and chemical products and ship chandlers and bunkering industries contracted by 11.5 per cent and 0.7 per cent respectively.
Year-on-year growth in domestic sales was also reported in the general wholesale trade (13.8 per cent), electronic components (3.2 per cent), transport equipment (2.6 per cent), metals, timber and construction materials (2.3 per cent) and industrial and construction machinery (2.0 per cent).
The telecommunications and computers industry saw a flat year-on-year performance in the third quarter.
The household equipment and furniture, and food, beverages and tobacco industries suffered year-on-year drops in domestic sales of 29.8 per cent and 5.2 per cent respectively.
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