Wholesale trade continues to increase

Seasonally adjusted total wholesale trade sales for the June 2007 quarter increased 2.4 percent, Statistics New Zealand said today. This is the second consecutive quarterly increase since December 2006. Close to half of the increase came from food and grocery products wholesaling (up 6.3 percent).

Other major contributors to the increase were machinery and equipment wholesaling (up 11.6 percent) and electrical and electronic equipment wholesaling (up 7.9 percent). These increases were partly offset by decreases in both wholesale trade wholesaling, and household goods wholesaling.

Between the December 2005 and June 2007 quarters, the total wholesale trade sales trend has increased 9.1 percent, following a flat period at the end of 2005.

Seasonally adjusted wholesale stocks for the June 2007 quarter were 2.4 percent higher than for the March 2007 quarter.