New Zealand recently reported a wholesale trade sales rise of 3.7 percent or 1.1 billion NZ dollars (790 million US dollars) in the March 2021 quarter. This comes after the statistics department, Stats NZ reported a fall of 1.7 percent in the December quarter last year.
Business Insights Releases Reports for Wholesale Trade Sales
Business Insights manager Sue Chapman released a statement and said that the increase in March quarter 2021 comes after NZ suffered a fall in December 2020. She said that the leading rise in the wholesale trade sales was from the motor vehicles and motor vehicle parts industry.
She also said that the wholesale trade sales of the motor vehicles took a tumble in the Covid-affected June quarter. However, the increase in the March 2021 quarter, has lifted the year-ended March 2021 sales to just shy of the previous year’s level.
At the same time, the high demand and import supply issues have caused wholesale trade vehicle stock levels to drop by more than 250 million NZ dollars (180 million US dollars) over the same period, statistics show.
Manufacturing Sales Volumes Reaches Records
As per the latest reports, manufacturing sales volumes reached a record peak of 27 billion NZ dollars (19.45 billion US dollars), up 0.4 per cent from the December 2020 quarter. When compared with the March 2020 quarter, manufacturing sales rose 4.2 per cent over the year, Stats NZ said.
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Chapman said that in the March quarter, the most substantial sales volume rises were in transport, machinery and equipment manufacturing, as well as meat and dairy product manufacturing.
Covid 19 Impacts New Homes Building Projects in New Zealand
Around half of surveyed building projects for new homes in Auckland have reported a moderate to severe impact associated with COVID-19 in the March 2021 quarter, Stats NZ said today.
More than 4,500 builders, developers, and owners provided their perceptions of COVID-19’s impact on building projects. Over 3,000 of the responses capture information about new buildings.
“Respondents of building projects for new homes in Auckland were more likely to report greater impacts from COVID-19 than the rest of the country, similar to previous quarters,” construction statistics manager Michael Heslop said.
