6 September 2006

Petroleum Continues to Drive Wholesale Trade Growth

Seasonally adjusted total wholesale trade sales for the June 2006 quarter increased 1.4 percent, Statistics New Zealand said today. Once again the increase was driven by petroleum product wholesaling (up 9.3 percent) which contributed over half the total increase.

The second largest rise in the latest quarter was in primary product food wholesaling (up 7.1 percent), followed by metal and mineral wholesaling (up 16.6 percent). These rises were partly offset by falls in food and grocery product wholesaling (down 1.6 percent), and motor vehicle wholesaling (down 2.6 percent).

The total sales trend has shown steady growth since the December 1998 quarter. Seasonally adjusted wholesale stocks for the June 2006 quarter were 2 percent higher than for the March 2006 quarter. Cathryn Ashley-Jones

Acting Government Statistician

ENDS