Singapore's domestic wholesale trade falls 25.8% year on year in Q1

SINGAPORE'S domestic wholesale trade dropped 25.8 per cent year on year in the first quarter of 2015, dragged down by the lower prices of petroleum and chemical products.

Stripping out petrol, domestic wholesale trade would have fallen 12.6 per cent, according to data released by the Department of Statistics on Wednesday. In the first quarter, there was a decline of 38.7 per cent for petroleum and petroleum prices at current prices.

But after adjusting for price changes, overall domestic wholesale trade rose 5.4 per cent.

Meanwhile, domestic wholesale trade (seasonally adjusted) declined 16.4 per cent in Q1 2015 over Q4 2014, also due to the lower prices of petrol and chemical products.

After removing the price effect, overall domestic wholesale trade decreased by a smaller margin of 0.4 per cent quarter on quarter.