Wholesale trade declines in autumn
Embargoed until 10:45am – 07 September 2012
Wholesale trade sales fell in the June 2012 quarter, Statistics New Zealand said today. This follows two positive
quarters in which the sales grew almost $1 billion.
Wholesale trade sales, after adjusting for seasonal effects, fell 1.4 percent ($294 million) in the June 2012 quarter.
"The machinery and equipment industry had the only increase this quarter. All other industries had lower quarterly
sales," industry and labour statistics manager Blair Cardno said. The biggest fall was in grocery, liquor, and tobacco
wholesaling, where sales fell 1.6 percent ($105 million).
The trend for total wholesale sales has generally been rising since mid-2009. However, during the year to the June 2012
quarter the rate of increase has slowed.
The seasonally adjusted value of stocks was $9.0 billion at 30 June 2012, up 3.8 percent ($326 million) from 31 March
2012.
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