Foreign wholesale trade inches a tad 2.5% higher

Check out how subsectors performed.

According to Department of Statistics, foreign wholesale trade (seasonally adjusted) increased marginally by 0.1% in fourth quarter 2012 in comparison to third quarter 2012.

Excluding petroleum, foreign wholesale trade grew by 1.6% over the previous quarter. After removing price effect, foreign wholesale trade increased 1.1%.

Compared to the same period a year ago, foreign wholesale trade increased 2.5%. Excluding petroleum, foreign wholesale trade rose 0.4%.

After adjusting for price changes, foreign wholesale trade grew by 8.6%.

After seasonal adjustment, foreign sales of timber, paints & construction materials recorded the largest increase of 16.5% over the previous quarter.

Other sectors with positive growth in foreign sales included electronic components (8.4%), telecommunications & computers (7.9%) and household equipment & furniture (2.2%).

On the other hand, industrial & construction machinery reported a double-digit decline of 14.3% in foreign sales. Other sectors that experienced lower foreign sales included chemicals & chemical products (-7.3%), food, beverages & tobacco (-6.9%), general wholesale trade (-6.9%), petroleum & petroleum products (-3.1%), ship chandlers & bunkering (-2.3%) and transport equipment (-2.3%).

The transport equipment sector recorded a significant 30.9% growth, partially due to the lower sales last year. The telecommunications & computers (13.1%), electronic components (12.9%) and timber, paints & construction materials (12.9%) sectors registered double-digit growth in foreign sales compared to the same period a year ago.

Petroleum & petroleum products reported a smaller increase in foreign sales of 4.9%. In contrast, industrial & construction machinery and food, beverages & tobacco experienced a year-on-year decline of 16.4% and 12.7% respectively in foreign sales.

Sectors that also reported negative growth in foreign sales included general wholesale trade (-8.1%), chemicals & chemical products (-6.7%), ship chandlers & bunkering (-5.4%) and household equipment & furniture (-3.2%).