Domestic wholesale trade up 6.6% in Q1

Strong sales of petroleum products buoyed quarterly figures.

Domestic wholesale trade rose 6.6% YoY in Q1 buoyed by a surge in petroleum and petroleum product sales, according to figures released by the Statistics Department.

Without petroleum products leading the headline growth, domestic wholesale trade actually fell 7.7% on a YoY basis and 6% on a QoQ basis.

The domestic sales of most products dipped on a year-on-year basis with metals, timber & construction material plunging 22.1% followed by transport equipment which dropped 14.3% on a year-on-year basis.

Chemical products, industrial and construction machinery also fell 12.3% YoY and 10.6% YoY respectively.

Only food, beverages & tobacco as well as household equipment and furniture registered marginal increases at 2.2% and 0.8% respectively on a year-on-year basis.

The similar trend can be observed in foreign wholesale trade as strong foreign sales of petroleum and petroleum products pulled up headline figures which rose 3.2% YoY.

However, a greater number of products performed more strongly compared to their domestic counterparts led by industrial & construction machinery which rose 10.5% YoY and telecommunications & computers which increased 4.4 % YoY.