KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 9 — Malaysia’s wholesale and retail trade had contracted by 5.9 per cent for the whole of 2020 — a historical low, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia’s report on the Performance of Wholesale and Retail Trade for December 2020.
During the month under review, wholesale and retail trade declined by 0.3 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM115.5 billion, said chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin.
In a statement today, he said retail trade declined 2.0 per cent y-o-y or RM0.9 billion to RM46.8 billion in December 2020, while wholesale trade also recorded a decrease of RM0.3 billion or 0.6 per cent y-o-y to RM55.3 billion.
On the other hand, he said motor vehicles continued to record positive growth with an increase of RM0.9 billion or 7.4 per cent y-o-y to RM13.4 billion.
Mohd Uzir said the negative growth in December 2020’s retail trade was due to the decline in retail sales of non-essential products, namely retail sales in specialised stores (-6.4 per cent), household goods (-4.1 per cent), cultural and recreation goods (-4.9 per cent), and information and communication equipment (-0.9 per cent).
However, he said sales of essential goods depicted a positive growth, namely retail sales in non-specialised stores, which grew by 2.1 per cent y-o-y to RM16.9 billion, followed by retail sale of food, beverages and tobacco, which recorded a 6.4 per cent y-o-y growth to RM2.9 billion.
Retail trade not in stores, stalls or markets also expanded 9.8 per cent to RM0.4 billion y-o-y, followed by retail sale via stalls and markets, which increased by 7.3 per cent y-o-y to RM0.1 billion.
On wholesale trade, Mohd Uzir attributed the 0.6 per cent y-o-y fall in December 2020 to the decline in other specialised wholesale and wholesale on a fee or contract basis, which fell by 6.4 per cent.
By contrast, wholesale of food, beverages and tobacco grew 5.1 per cent y-o-y to RM10.7 billion, while the wholesale of household goods increased 3.9 per cent y-o-y to RM11.2 billion.
Similarly, wholesale of machinery, equipment and supplies also expanded 3.2 per cent y-o-y in December 2020 with sales totalling RM4.8 billion, he added.
Meanwhile, sales of motor vehicles spearheaded the growth in the motor vehicles sub-sector, recording a double-digit increment of 15.3 per cent y-o-y to RM7.5 billion.
This was followed by the sale, maintenance and repair of motorcycles, which registered a sales value of RM1.1 billion — a 6.9 per cent growth y-o-y.
However, maintenance and repair of motor vehicles contracted 3.2 per cent y-o-y to record RM1.6 billion.
Sale of motor vehicles parts and accessories also decreased by 2.6 per cent y-o-y to RM3.2 billion.
Mohd Uzir said month-on-month (m-o-m), sales value rose 4.6 per cent in December 2020 compared to November 2020 after the conditional movement control order was lifted, except in certain states and districts due to the increase in daily Covid-19 cases.
He said the m-o-m growth was contributed by the 4.8 per cent or RM2.5 billion increase in wholesale trade, as well as retail trade which expanded by RM2.0 billion or 4.5 per cent, followed by motor vehicles which went up RM0.6 billion or 4.4 per cent.
Meanwhile, the online retail sales index surged by 37.3 per cent y-o-y.
“For seasonally adjusted retail sales index, it went up 3.9 per cent as against the previous month,” he said.
In terms of volume index, wholesale and retail trade registered a negative growth of -0.7 per cent y-o-y, which Mohd Uzir said was due to the fall in retail trade, which decreased 2.9 per cent, while wholesale trade also depicted a slight fall of -0.02 per cent.
Meanwhile, motor vehicles recorded a positive growth of 6.0 per cent.
— Bernama
