Singapore’s domestic wholesale sales grew 49.8% y-o-y in 2Q2021, following the 3.7% y-o-y decline recorded in 1Q2021, according to data released by the Department of Statistics (Singstat) on August 20.
The higher growth is largely due to the low base in 2Q2020 when most major economies were under lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in a decline in global trade.
Excluding petroleum, domestic wholesale sales grew 31.3% y-o-y in 2Q2021.
Most wholesale trade industries registered growths in domestic sales in the 2Q. The Metals, Timber & Construction Materials industry rose 105.2% in domestic sales due to the low base last year when most construction activities were disrupted during the Circuit Breaker period which resulted in low demand for construction materials.
The Petroleum & Petroleum Products and Ship Chandlers & Bunkering industries saw improvements of 79.1% and 73.5% respectively, due mainly to higher oil prices.
Conversely, the Food, Beverages & Tobacco industry registered a decline of 4.8%, due partly to lower sales of grocery items as compared to second quarter 2020.
On a q-o-q basis, total domestic wholesale sales grew 1.2%, slowing down from the 27.8% q-o-q growth recorded for the previous quarter. Excluding petroleum, domestic wholesale sales grew 2.1% q-o-q in 2Q2021, also slowing down from 11.8% q-o-q growth for 1Q2021.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the Telecommunications & Computers industry registered q-o-q growth of 17.5% in 2Q2021, due to higher demand for computer hardware and software locally. The General Wholesale Trade and Industrial & Construction Machinery industries also recorded higher domestic sales of 10.3% and 3.7% respectively.
In contrast, the Transport Equipment and Ship Chandlers & Bunkering industries contracted by 5.9% and 4.5% respectively due to lower demand for motor vehicles and ship bunkering.
Meanwhile, Singapore’s foreign wholesale sales grew 47.3% y-o-y, higher than the 11.9% y-o-y growth achieved in 1Q2021, mainly attributable to the low base in 2Q2020.
Excluding petroleum, foreign wholesale sales grew 22.8% y-o-y.
All wholesale trade industries recorded higher foreign sales, due largely to the low base in the corresponding quarter the previous year. The Petroleum & Petroleum Products, Chemicals & Chemical Products and Ship Chandlers & Bunkering industries saw growths in foreign sales of 100.4%, 45.4% and 44.6% respectively, due mainly to higher oil prices as a result of the recovery of the global oil market. The Transport Equipment industry expanded by 88.6%, due mainly to the lower base caused by weak external demand in the corresponding period last year.
On a q-o-q basis, foreign whole sales grew 5.2%, lower than the 17.2% y-o-y growth recorded in 1Q2021. Excluding petroleum, foreign wholesale sales grew 5.1% q-o-q, compared to 7.3% in 1Q2021.
After seasonal adjustment, most wholesale trade industries registered improvements in foreign sales in 2Q2021 compared to1Q2021. Among them, foreign wholesale sales of the General Wholesale Trade, Chemical & Chemical Products and Metals, Timber & Construction Materials industries rose 20.8%, 12.7% and 11% respectively, due mainly to the increase in commodity prices and higher global demand.
Conversely, foreign wholesale sales of the Telecommunications & Computers and Industrial & Construction Machinery industries declined 7.5% and 4.1% respectively, due to lower demand for mobile equipment and electrical & wiring accessories.
Photo: Bloomberg
