Singapore's domestic wholesale trade slipped 5.7 per cent in the third quarter of this year compared to the same period a year ago, the Department of Statistics Singapore said on Thursday.

The drop was largely due to the general wholesale trade industry, which saw the largest decrease of 22.7 per cent in domestic sales. Other industries that experienced drops included metals, timber & construction materials (-7.3 per cent) and petroleum & petroleum products (-6.8 per cent).

Excluding petroleum, domestic wholesale trade fell 4.6 per cent.

After adjusting for price changes, overall domestic wholesale trade registered a smaller year-on-year decrease of 1.7 per cent.

Some industries saw improvements such as domestic sales of the food, beverages & tobacco (+8.3 per cent), industrial & construction machinery industries (+6.9 per cent) and chemicals & chemical products (+ 4.1 per cent).