SINGAPORE - Singapore's domestic wholesale trade contracted by 15.9 per cent year-on-year (yoy) in the fourth quarter of 2015, partly due to lower prices of petroleum and chemical products.
This follows a 26 per cent contraction in the third quarter of last year.
Excluding petroleum, domestic wholesale trade dropped 8.8 per cent, the Department of Statistics Singapore (SingStat) said on Friday (Feb 19).
After adjusting for price changes, wholesale trade here registered a year-on-year increase of 13.8 per cent.
The biggest falls in business was suffered by ship chandlers and bunkering (-44.1 per cent yoy), general wholesale trade (-29.3 per cent) and petroleum and petroleum products (-23.6 per cent).
On the upside, domestic wholesales trade grew - more modestly - for transport equipment (+14.5 per cent), telecommunications and computers (3.9 per cent) and electronic components (3.7 per cent).
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, domestic wholesale trade dipped 1.1 per cent in October to December period from the third quarter of 2015. Excluding petroleum, it declined 1.6 per cent. After removing the price effect, overall domestic wholesale trade grew by 5.3 per cent over the previous quarter.
SingStat also announced that foreign wholesale trade in the fourth quarter fell 14.4 per cent yoy, also hit by lower prices of petroleum and chemical products. Excluding petroleum, it dropped 7.9 per cent. After adjusting for price changes, overall foreign wholesale trade expanded by 7.2 per cent.
