Domestic wholesale trade shrank yet again

Guess which sector weighed down the index the most to a 0.9% qoq contraction in Q411.

The General Wholesale Trade sector led the decline with a 7.1% slide with five other sectors posting decreases, including Chemicals & Chemical Products (3.9%) and Electronic Components (2.8%).

The silver lining is that this quarter's performance was relatively better than the previous recorded quarter, during which Singapore's domestic wholesale trade declined 2.3%.

The Department of Statistics Singapore reported:

Quarter-on-Quarter Change (Seasonally Adjusted). After seasonal adjustment, general wholesale trade sector experienced a decline of 7.1% in its domestic sales while petroleum & petroleum products, chemicals & chemical products and electronic components sectors recorded declines of between 2.8% and 4.3% in fourth quarter 2011.

In contrast, telecommunications & computers, ship chandlers & bunkering, industrial & construction machinery and timber, paints & construction materials sectors registered increases of between 5.2% and 10.3% over third quarter 2011.

Year-on-Year Change. Ship chandlers & bunkering sector reported strong year-on-year growth of 29.5% in domestic sales in nominal value (Table 3). After removing the price effect, the domestic wholesale trade volume of ship chandlers & bunkering sector increased marginally by 0.5%. 

Other sectors that posted double-digit year-on-year increases in domestic sales included telecommunications & computers (16.1%), transport equipment (13.9%) and industrial & construction machinery (13.1%). Petroleum & petroleum products sector also recorded a double-digit growth of 12.7% in nominal terms, but its sales registered a 12.5% decline in real terms.

Timber, paints & construction materials, general wholesale trade and food, beverages & tobacco sectors registered relatively smaller increases of between 4.6% and 6.4%.On the other hand, sectors that reported year-on-year declines in domestic sales included electronic components (-15.9%), household equipment & furniture (-12.2%) and chemicals and chemical products (-6.7%).