Real wholesale trade sales up 3.7% in February

The rate of growth in wholesale trade sales at constant (2000) prices slowed to 3.7% year on year (y/y) in February compared with a revised 7.4% (6.8%) y/y increase in January‚ Statistics SA data showed on Thursday.

Measured in real terms‚ seasonally adjusted wholesale trade sales decreased by 1.3% in February compared with January following month-on-month changes of 3.5% in January and -2.0% in December.

Seasonally adjusted wholesale trade sales rose by 2.9% in the three months ended February this year compared with the previous three months.

Measured in nominal terms (current prices)‚ wholesale trade sales increased by 8.1% y/y.

The major contributors to this increase were dealers in food‚ beverages and tobacco (14.9% and contributing 2.1 percentage points); other goods (20.2% and contributing 1.9 percentage points); other household goods except precious stones (13.6% and contributing 1.4 percentage points); machinery‚ equipment and supplies (10.4% and contributing 1.4 percentage points).

Wholesale trade sales increased by 9.5% in the three months ended February compared with the three months ended February last year.

The major contributors to this increase were dealers in solid‚ liquid and gaseous fuels and related products (10.3% and contributing 2.5 percentage points); food‚ beverages and tobacco (14.4% and contributing 2.3 percentage points); and machinery‚ equipment and supplies (11.7% and contributing 1.5 percentage points).