KUALA LUMPUR, March 13 — Malaysia’s wholesale and retail trade recorded RM142.4 billion in sales value, a 5.4 per cent increase year-on-year (y-o-y), in January 2024.
Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the y-o-y increase was driven by the wholesale trade sub-sector, which rose 5.5 per cent or RM3.3 billion to register RM63.7 billion.
“Motor vehicles also expanded by 16.0 per cent or RM2.4 billion to RM17.6 billion, followed by retail trade at 2.6 per cent, or RM1.5 billion, to settle at RM61.1 billion,” he said in a statement following the release of the Performance of Wholesale and Retail Trade, January 2024 report today.
However, for monthly comparison, sales value fell 1.1 per cent compared to December 2023.
This was contributed by retail trade, which slipped 2.1 per cent, followed by motor vehicles sub-sector, which contracted 5.1 per cent.
“In contrast, the wholesale trade sub-sector registered 1.2 per cent growth in this month,” he said.
Looking at the performance across sub-sectors, growth of 5.5 per cent y-o-y for wholesale trade in January was supported by other specialised wholesale, which rose RM1.8 billion or 8.3 per cent to RM24.0 billion.
This was followed by the wholesale of food, beverages and tobacco (4.6 per cent), the wholesale of household goods (2.9 per cent), the wholesale of agricultural raw materials and live animals (4.2 per cent), the wholesale of machinery, equipment, and supplies (4.5 per cent), non-specialised wholesale trade (4.3 per cent), and the wholesale on a fee or contract basis (2.1 per cent).
For monthly comparison, wholesale trade rebounded by 1.2 per cent, mainly contributed by the wholesale of food, beverages, and tobacco (6.7 per cent), the wholesale of household goods (2.0 per cent), other specialised wholesale (0.6 per cent), and non-specialised wholesale trade (0.6 per cent).
The index of retail sales over the Internet slipped 1.6 percent y-o-y in January compared with 0.4 percent in December 2023.
In contrast, for seasonally adjusted value, the index edged up 0.5 per cent against the previous month.
In terms of volume index, wholesale and retail trade for January registered a y-o-y growth of 3.5 per cent.
“The expansion was attributed to all sub-sectors, namely motor vehicles (12.1 per cent), wholesale trade (4.0 per cent) and retail trade (1.4 per cent).
“For seasonally adjusted volume index, it inched down 0.9 per cent month-on-month,” Uzir said.
— Bernama
