Malaysia’s wholesale and retail trade grew 12.4 percent year-on-year in January 2023 to record a monthly sales value of RM135.1 billion, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said.
Chief Statistician Datuk Seri 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 percent y-o-y to RM59.6 billion.
Motor vehicles also expanded by 20.1 percent y-o-y or RM2.5 billion to RM15.2 billion while wholesale trade went up 3.1 percent 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 percent, mainly contributed by the motor vehicles sub-sector which decreased 13.4 percent,” he said in a statement today.
Mohd Uzir said the retail trade sub-sector growth of 21.7 percent in January 2023 was supported by retail sales in non-specialised stores which grew 24.6 percent or RM4.5 billion to RM22.7 billion.
“For m-o-m comparison, sales of this sub-sector went up 0.2 percent,” he said.
The 20.1 percent growth in the motor vehicles sub-sector was attributed to sales of motor vehicles, which increased 25 percent or RM1.5 billion to RM7.7 billion.
“However, on a monthly basis, sales of this sub-sector decreased 13.4 percent influenced by sales of motor vehicles, which declined 23.4 percent,” Mohd Uzir said.
For the wholesale trade sub-sector, the increase of 3.1 percent was attributed to the wholesale of household goods, which registered an increase of RM1 billion or 8.6 percent to RM12.8 billion.
For monthly comparison, wholesale trade grew 0.1 percent, which mainly contributed to the wholesale of household goods, which increased 4.4 percent or RM0.5 billion to RM12.8 billion.
Additionally, he said the index of retail sales over the internet for January 2023 recorded 9.6 percent growth y-o-y versus 10.2 percent y-o-y growth in December 2022.
“For seasonally adjusted value, the index rose 1.3 percent as against the previous month,” Mohd Uzir said.
In terms of volume index, wholesale and retail trade for January 2023 registered a y-o-y growth of 8.6 percent attributed to retail trade, which increased by 16.2 percent.
“Similarly, motor vehicles and wholesale trade also recorded positive growths of 10.8 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.
“However, the seasonally adjusted volume index went down 4.4 percent m-o-m,” he added.
