Singapore's domestic wholesale trade down 5.7% in Q3

SINGAPORE'S domestic wholesale trade dropped 5.7 per cent in the third quarter of 2014 compared to a year ago, the Department of Statistics Singapore said on Thursday.

The fall was largely due to the general wholesale trade industry, which recorded the largest decrease of 22.7 per cent in domestic sales. Other industries that experienced drops included metals, timber & construction materials (-7.3 per cent) and petroleum & petroleum products (-6.8 per cent).

Excluding petroleum, domestic wholesale trade fell 4.6 per cent.

After adjusting for price changes, overall domestic wholesale trade registered a smaller year-on-year decrease of 1.7 per cent.

Still, other industries saw improvements. Domestic sales of the food, beverages & tobacco and industrial & construction machinery industries grew by 8.3 per cent and 6.9 per cent respectively.