Singapore's Q2 domestic wholesale trade falls 19%

SINGAPORE'S domestic wholesale trade contracted by 18.8 per cent in the second quarter of this year compared to the year-ago period, partly due to lower prices of petroleum and chemical products, data released by the Singapore Department of Statistics on Thursday showed.

Excluding petroleum, domestic wholesale trade fell a milder 11.6 per cent year on year.

After adjusting for price changes (so that the index at constant prices measures the change in sales volume), overall domestic wholesale trade registered a year-on-year increase of 7.6 per cent.

The ship chandler & bunkering and petroleum & petroleum product industries, being affected by decreases in the prices of petroleum products, reported significant drops in domestic sales of 43.5 per cent and 25.9 per cent respectively.

Removing the price effect, the ship chandler & bunkering industry recorded a smaller decline in sales of 14.3 per cent, while the petroleum & petroleum product industry actually registered higher sales of 17.7 per cent.

The domestic sales of chemicals & chemical products rose 2.8 per cent in Q2 in nominal terms, and a higher 36.9 per cent after adjusting for price changes.

On a quarter-on quarter comparison, domestic wholesale trade expanded by 7.1 per cent in Q2 over Q1 on a seasonally adjusted basis. Excluding petroleum, domestic wholesale trade rose 1.2 per cent. After removing the price effect , overall domestic wholesale trade grew by 1.7 per cent over the previous quarter.

As for foreign wholesale trade, compared to the same period a year ago, it declined 14.6 per cent due to lower prices of petroleum and chemical products. Excluding petroleum, foreign wholesale trade fell 5.1 per cent. After adjusting for price changes, overall foreign wholesale trade grew by 6.6 per cent year on year.

Quarter on quarter, foreign wholesale trade grew 7.3 per cent in Q2 over the preceding quarter on a seasonally adjusted basis. Excluding petroleum, it rose 2 per cent over the previous quarter. After removing the price effect, overall foreign wholesale trade increased 1.6 per cent.