Singapore's domestic wholesale trade down 26% in Q3

SINGAPORE'S domestic wholesale trade contracted 26 per cent in the third quarter of 2015 compared with a year ago, the Department of Statistics Singapore (DOS) said on Friday.

Excluding petroleum, however, the drop was less severe with a 12.1 per cent decline.

"The decline in nominal domestic wholesale trade value was partly due to lower prices of petroleum and chemical products. After adjusting for price changes, overall domestic wholesale trade registered a year-on-year increase of 7.4 per cent," said DOS.

The worst-performing industries were ship chandlers & bunkering, petroleum & petroleum products, and general wholesale trade. These registered sharp double-digit declines of 51 per cent, 38.8 per cent, and 38.8 per cent respectively.

Although the Q3's decline in domestic wholesale trade was broad-based, four industries still posted growth - telecommunications & computers (13.1 per cent), transport equipment (5.9 per cent), electronic components (4.2 per cent), and food, beverages & tobacco (4 per cent).