Wholesale trade stats continue fall

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Seasonally adjusted wholesale trade sales fell for a fifth consecutive quarter, down 0.8 per cent ($154 million) in the September 2009 quarter, Statistics New Zealand says.

"This is the first time that wholesale trade sales have fallen for five quarters", business statistics manager Louise Holmes-Oliver said.

At $20.2 billion, sales are about the same level as nearly three years ago she said.

Nine industries showed falling sales and seven increased in the September 2009 quarter.

Driving the overall fall were falls in:

*primary product food wholesaling, down 8.4 percent ($148 million)

* farm, construction machinery, and professional business equipment wholesaling, down 6.6 per cent ($119 million).

A rise in food and grocery products wholesaling, up 4.1 percent ($172 million), partly offset the overall fall.

The trend in wholesale trade sales has been falling for more than a year, down 10.4 percent since the June 2008 quarter.

"This far surpasses the previous largest fall in the trend, which was a drop of 1.1 percent over three quarters of 1996", Mrs Holmes-Oliver said.

 Latest figures suggest the rate of fall has slowed.

- © Fairfax NZ News