KUALA LUMPUR, March 13 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysia’s wholesale and retail trade grew 12.4 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) in January 2023 to record monthly sales value of RM135.1 billion (US$30.1 billion (US$1 = RM4.49), the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM) said.
Chief statistician Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the increase was attributed to the retail trade sub-sector, which recorded an increase of RM10.6 billion or 21.7 per cent y-o-y to RM59.6 billion.
He said motor vehicles also expanded by 20.1 per cent y-o-y or RM2.5 billion to RM15.2 billion while wholesale trade went up 3.1 per cent y-o-y or RM1.8 billion to RM60.4 billion.
“However, for month-on-month (m-o-m) comparison, sales value of wholesale and retail trade declined 1.6 per cent, mainly contributed by the motor vehicles sub-sector which decreased 13.4 per cent,” he said in a statement Monday.
Mohd Uzir said the retail trade sub-sector growth of 21.7 per cent in January 2023 was supported by retail sales in non-specialised stores which grew 24.6 per cent or RM4.5 billion to RM22.7 billion.
“For m-o-m comparison, sales of this sub-sector went up 0.2 per cent,” he said.
He said the 20.1 per cent growth in the motor vehicles sub-sector was attributed to sales of motor vehicles, which increased 25 per cent or RM1.5 billion to RM7.7 billion.
“However, on a monthly basis, sales of this sub-sector decreased 13.4 per cent influenced by sales of motor vehicles, which declined 23.4 per cent,” he said.
He said for wholesale trade sub-sector, the increase of 3.1 per cent was attributed to the wholesale of household goods, which registered an increase of RM1 billion or 8.6 per cent to RM12.8 billion.
Mohd Uzir said for monthly comparison, wholesale trade grew 0.1 per cent, which mainly contributed to the wholesale of household goods, which increased 4.4 per cent or RM0.5 billion to RM12.8 billion.
Additionally, he said the index of retail sale over the internet for January 2023 recorded 9.6 per cent growth y-o-y versus 10.2 per cent y-o-y growth in December 2022.
“For seasonally adjusted value, the index rose 1.3 per cent as against the previous month,” he said.
He said in terms of volume index, wholesale and retail trade for January 2023 registered a y-o-y growth of 8.6 per cent attributed to retail trade, which increased 16.2 per cent.
“Similarly, motor vehicles and wholesale trade also recorded positive growths of 10.8 per cent and 0.3 per cent, respectively.
“However, the seasonally adjusted volume index went down 4.4 per cent m-o-m,” he added.
— NNN-BERNAMA
