Wholesalers sold R168.5bn worth of goods in May, double the R84.7bn sold by retailers, Statistics SA says.After stripping out inflation, wholesalers sold 0.5% more in May than in the same month in 2017. This halted two months of contraction. Wholesalers suffered a 2.6% annual sales drop in April, which followed a 0.3% drop in March.For calculating quarterly GDP, Statistics SA combines its various trade categories — including retail, wholesale, motor and accommodation — into one of the 11 components into which GDP is split. During the first quarter, the trade component of GDP contracted by 0.4% from the fourth quarter of 2017. Mining and manufacturing both contracted 0.8%, and agriculture’s contribution to the country’s economy fell 0.7%.Overall, GDP suffered a 2.2% decline in the first quarter.Many of the monthly reports for the various pieces of second-quarter GDP released by Statistics SA so far have been negative, raising the alarm that the country has entered a recession as defi...
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