-- New Zealand's wholesale trade sales bounced back into growth in the final quarter of last year, after declining in the third quarter, the government statistics agency announced Wednesday.
Wholesale trade sales rose 2.5 percent, or 490 million NZ dollars (399.6 million U.S. dollars) in the December 2011 quarter, following a fall of 2.7 percent (550 million NZ dollars) in the September quarter, according to Statistics New Zealand.
"The overall rise was not reflected evenly across all wholesaling industries, with only two of six industries recording substantial rises," industry and labor statistics manager Blair Cardno said in a statement.
The main contributors to the December 2011 quarter sales rise were machinery and equipment wholesaling, which was up 6.6 percent (261 million NZ dollars), and grocery, liquor, and tobacco product wholesaling, which was up 4.2 percent (259 million NZ dollars).
Basic materials wholesaling was up 0.3 percent (15 million NZ dollars), but other goods wholesaling was down 3.1 percent (101 million NZ dollars), motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts wholesaling was down 2.1 percent (31 million NZ dollars) and commission-based wholesaling was down 2.4 percent (10 million NZ dollars).
The trend for wholesale trade sales flattened in the last two quarters after seven quarters of growth, but it remained near a historically high level, said the statement.
The seasonally adjusted value of stocks was 8.9 billion NZ dollars at the end of December, up 2.5 percent (216 million NZ dollars) from the end of September 2011./.