NZ wholesale trade records fastest quarterly gain in two years

New Zealand’s wholesale trade recorded the fastest quarterly gain in two years during the second three months of the year, buoyed by gains in fruit exports that helped support underpin sales of grocery, liquor and tobacco products.

New Zealand’s seasonally adjusted sales rose 1.7 percent in the three months ended June 30, snapping two quarterly declines, and registering the biggest increase since June 2014. The quarterly gain was driven by a 2 percent increase in grocery, liquor and tobacco products, which account for almost a third of all wholesale trade, data released by Statistics New Zealand showed Tuesday.

Further, sales of motor vehicles and auto parts jumped 5.3 percent in the quarter, the largest move, as new vehicle sales continued to break records with a strong kiwi dollar, thus lowering the cost of imports and cheap petrol encouraging more motorists on the roads.

Also, sales of other goods rose 2.8 percent, while machinery and equipment sales fell 1.1 percent, the first quarterly decline in a year, and commission-based sales were down 1.7 percent, reports said.

Actual wholesale trade rose 4 percent in the three months ended March 31 to USD23.65 billion from the same period a year earlier, with grocery, liquor and tobacco products - the biggest industry - up 6.4 percent to USD7.82 billion, and basic materials, the second-biggest industry, were down 2.5 percent to USD4.65 billion.

Meanwhile, wholesale stocks built surged 3.2 percent to USD10.71 billion in the quarter from June 2015, led by a 12 percent gain in grocery, liquor and tobacco stocks. On a seasonally adjusted basis, wholesale inventories shrank 0.1 percent in the quarter.