SINGAPORE - Singapore's domestic wholesale trade expanded by 6.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2018, compared with the same period last year, largely due to sales of petroleum and petroleum products.

Quarter on quarter and seasonally adjusted, domestic wholesale trade grew by 5.7 per cent, according to Department of Statistics data released on Friday (May 18).

Excluding petroleum, domestic wholesale trade dropped by 7.7 per cent from a year ago. Quarter on quarter, it declined 6.0 per cent.

After adjusting for price changes, overall domestic wholesale trade rose by 3.2 per cent from a year ago, and a smaller 2.0 per cent from the previous quarter.

On a year-on-year basis, most industries recorded lower domestic sales in the first quarter. Among them, double-digit decreases were recorded in the metals, timber & construction materials (-22.1 per cent), transport equipment (-14.3 per cent), chemicals & chemical products (-12.3 per cent), industrial & construction machinery (-10.6 per cent) and other wholesale trade (-12.9 per cent) industries.

In contrast, domestic sales of petroleum and petroleum products jumped by 27 per cent in the first quarter, due partly to increases in prices of petroleum products in the year-ago quarter. After removing the price effect, there was a smaller increase of 16.8 per cent in the volume of domestic sales of petroleum and petroleum products.