Wholesale trade down for a fourth quarter

Seasonally adjusted total wholesale trade sales fell 0.9 percent ($195 million) for the June 2009 quarter, Statistics New Zealand said today. This follows the record decrease of 5.8 percent ($1.3 billion) in the March 2009 quarter and is the first time since the current series began in March 1995 that total sales have fallen for four consecutive quarters.

Ten wholesaling industries had declining sales, led by the 8.9 percent fall in petroleum product wholesaling, the fourth consecutive quarterly fall for this industry. Six industries recorded sales increases in the June 2009 quarter, led by motor vehicle wholesaling, up 6.3 percent, the first increase for motor vehicle sales since the September 2007 quarter.

The total sales trend has fallen 10.4 percent since the June 2008 quarter. The previous largest drop in the trend was a fall of less than one percent recorded over three quarters in 1998. Over this latest period, the average quarterly decrease was 2.7 percent compared with an average quarterly increase of 1.7 percent in the 10 quarters up to the June 2008 quarter.

Seasonally adjusted wholesale stocks for the June 2009 quarter fell 4.6 percent ($506 million). This follows decreases of 1.8 percent and 3.6 percent in the March 2009 and December 2008 quarters respectively, and is the longest period of decline in stocks since the series began in 1995.

Dallas Welch (Mrs) 7 September 2009
Acting Government Statistician