KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 9 — Sales of Malaysia’s wholesale and retail trade rose 6.7 per cent year-on-year to RM149 billion in July 2024, said the Statistics Department (DOSM).
Chief statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said retail trade grew 6.4 per cent to RM63.5 billion sales for the month.
“Wholesale trade also went up 5.5 per cent to record RM66.6 billion, followed by motor vehicles with an increase of 12.2 per cent to RM19.0 billion,” he said in a statement today.
On a month-on-month basis, wholesale and retail trade rebounded 2.1 per cent after dipping 1.3 per cent in June, bolstered by motor vehicle sales, which increased 11.6 per cent.
DOSM said the retail trade subsector’s on-year growth was led by retail sales in non-specialised stores which grew 7.7 per cent to RM24.4 billion, while the wholesale trade subsector’s on-year growth was supported by wholesale of machinery, equipment and supplies which rose 10.2 per cent to RM5.4 billion.
Meanwhile, the 12.2 per cent on-year growth for the motor vehicles subsector was driven by sales of motor vehicles, which recorded a double-digit growth of 14 per cent, it said.
For the index of retail sale over the Internet, the agency said the index grew 5.7 per cent on-year in July compared with 4.8 per cent on-year in June. For the seasonally adjusted value, the index inched up 1.5 per cent against the previous month.
DOSM said in terms of the volume index, wholesale and retail trade for July registered an on-year growth of 5.5 per cent, contributed by all subsectors — motor vehicles (10.8 per cent), wholesale trade (5.2 per cent) and retail trade (4.6 per cent).
“For the seasonally adjusted volume index, it went up 2.1 per cent on-month,” it said.
DOSM said the government has declared October 20 of each year National Statistics Day, or MyStats Day, and this year’s theme is “Statistics is the Essence of Life”.
— Bernama