PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s wholesale and retail trade registered sales value of RM147.9 billion in May 2024, expanding 7.1% year-on-year.
Chief Statistician Malaysia Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said in a statement today, “The increase of 7.1% year-on-year for wholesale and retail trade in May 2024 was driven by retail trade sub-sector, which rose 8.7% or RM5.1 billion to register RM64 billion. Wholesale trade grew by 4.7% or RM2.9 billion to RM65.1 billion, followed by motor vehicles with an increase of 10.5% or RM1.8 billion to settle at RM18.8 billion.”
For monthly comparison, wholesale and retail trade went up 2% from April, supported by motor vehicles and wholesale trade with 8.8% and 2%, respectively.
Looking at the performance across sub-sectors, the chief statistician said, “The growth of 8.7% year-on-year in retail trade was contributed by retail sales in non-specialised stores which grew 10.7% or RM2.4 billion to RM24.9 billion.”
Other groups in this sub-sector also recorded positive growth, namely retail sales in specialised stores (12.8%), automotive fuel (8.1%), household goods (5.3%), food, beverages & tobacco (9.6%), cultural & recreation goods (3.4%), sales not in stores, stalls or markets (8.0%), andsales in stalls & markets (5.9%).
Month-on-month, sales of this sub-sector inched up 0.3%, supported by retail sales in non-specialised stores (0.9%), retail sales of automotive fuel (0.6%), and retail sales of cultural & recreation goods (1.1%).
Commenting on the wholesale trade sub-sector, Mohd Uzir said the increase of 4.7% year-on-year in May was supported by other specialised wholesale which rose RM0.9 billion or 4% to RM24.1 billion.
This was followed by wholesale of household goods (6.5%), food, beverages & tobacco (6.2%), agricultural raw materials & live animals (3.9%), machinery, equipment & supplies (1.8%), non-specialised trade (4.3%), and wholesale on a fee or contract basis (2.2%).
For monthly comparison, wholesale trade rose 2%, mainly contributed by sales of household goods (2.9%), agricultural raw materials & live animals (4.7%), and other specialised wholesale (0.9%).
Mohd Uzir said, “The year-on-year growth of 10.5% for the motor vehicles sub-sector in May was fuelled by sales of motor vehicles which soared 11.1% or RM1 billion to record RM9.9 billion. This was followed by sales of motor vehicle parts & accessories (11.9%) and maintenance & repair of motor vehicles (12.8%). For monthly comparison, this sub-sector rebounded 8.8%, spearheaded by sales of motor vehicles (14.9%) and sales, maintenance & repair of motorcycles (17.2%).”
Meanwhile, the index of retail sale over the internet expanded 5.2% year-on-year in May this year compared to 4.3% in April. For seasonally adjusted value, the index slipped 4.7% as against the previous month.
In terms of volume index, wholesale & retail trade for May registered year-on-year growth of 5.7%. Conversely, for seasonally adjusted volume index went down 0.9% month-on-month.