Singapore domestic wholesale trade falls 4.7% in Q1, dragged by lower petroleum sales

LOWER petroleum sales in the first three months of the year dragged Singapore's domestic wholesale trade into negative territory, causing sales to contract 4.7 per cent year on year, according to data from the Department of Statistics Singapore (SingStat) on Thursday.

Excluding petroleum, however, domestic wholesale sales saw an increase of 6.1 per cent.

Compared to the previous quarter, seasonally-adjusted domestic wholesale sales rose 28 per cent in Q1, although the increase is smaller at 12.2 per cent once petroleum is excluded.

On a year-on-year basis, the chemical and chemical products industry saw the biggest improvement across all categories, with an 18.3 per cent jump in domestic sales.

In second place is metals, timber and construction industry, which saw a 10.7 per cent rise in domestic sales. SingStat said this is due partly to increased demand for petrochemical products and an increase in prices of metal ores.

The industrial and construction machinery industry logged the largest decline of 18 per cent, while the petroleum and petroleum products industry fell 15 per cent. This is due to lower demand for construction machinery from reduced domestic construction activities and a decrease in domestic sales volume of petroleum products, SingStat said.

On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally-adjusted basis, all wholesale trade industries recorded higher domestic sales in Q1, except for the industrial and construction machinery and telecommunications and computers industries.