Wholesale sales rose 1.8 percent in the June quarter, with all six of the industries measured contributing to the increase.
The latest seasonally adjusted increase follows a revised 0.2 percent fall, in the March quarter.
Wholesale sales of machinery and equipment jumped 3.2 percent in the latest quarter, while grocery, liquor and tobacco sales rose 2.6 percent.
A government statistician said the trend had been rising since the September quarter of 2009.
ASB Bank economist Chris Tennent-Brown said ASB provisionally expects the economy grew 0.6 percent in the June quarter.
"It gives us an encouraging sign for the small piece of the GDP puzzle, which is the most important of all these released that comes out at the end of the month."
Actual wholesale sales rose 5.9 percent to nearly $22 billion dollars compared with the June quarter last year.
