Domestic wholesale trade sinks 20.5% in 2Q16

Blame it on price slump of petroleum and chemical products.

Singapore’s domestic wholesale trade plunged 20.5% YoY in 2Q16 as prices of petroleum and chemical products tumbled from a year ago. Discounting petroleum products which dropped 26.4% YoY in the quarter, domestic wholesale trade still slipped 15.5% compared to the same period last year.

Department of Singapore’s 2Q16 Wholesale Trade Index (WTI) revealed YoY declines in almost all products except for transport equipment with 11.9% expansion, food, beverages and tobacco with a measly 1.0% growth, and household equipment and furniture with an even tinier increase of 0.6%.

The largest slump was in ship chandlers and bunkering that plummeted 39.3% YoY followed by general wholesale trade at -30.0% YoY. Electronic components products did not deliver well either. It is the same thing with industrial and construction machinery, telecommunications and computers, and metals, timber and construction materials, all of which recorded two-digit contractions.

WTI showed that foreign wholesale trade also decreased 16.6% YoY. Without petroleum products, foreign wholesale trade still dipped 13.1% compared to 2Q15.

Except for household equipment, telecommunications, and transport equipment, all foreign wholesale trade sectors had a bad performance in the quarter under review.

QoQ results climbed up for both domestic and foreign wholesale trade with 5.5% and 9.1% increases respectively.