It’s now been a full year of falls in the wholesale trade sector, with drops in four consecutive quarters for the first time since the statistics were first measured 14 years ago.

Statistics New Zealand’s seasonally adjusted wholesale trade sales figures were released today and while stronger than the record decrease of 5.9% ($1.3 billion) seen in the March quarter, the June quarter figures were still down by 0.9% ($195 million).

Total sales have now dropped by 10.4% since June last year; the first time sales have dropped in all four quarters since the current series began in March 1995.

Until this year, the largest previous drop had been one of less than 1% recorded over three quarters in 1998, according to Statistics NZ.

The results showed that 10 wholesaling industries had declining sales, including an 8.9% ($153 million) fall in the petroleum product wholesaling sector, with fuel sales falling by a massive 30.6% since the September 2008 quarter.

But there was still good news to be found in today’s results, with motor vehicle wholesaling up 6.3% in the June quarter, the first rise in motor vehicle sales since September 2007, although sales are still 27.7% down on that period.

Six other industries also recorded sales increases in the quarter, including builders’ supplies, electronic equipment and primary product food, which was up 3.7%.

Wholesale stocks were also down 4.6% ($506 million) for the June quarter, after decreases in the last two quarters, the longest period of decline in stocks since 1995.