Malaysia’s Wholesale & Retail Trade recorded a monthly sales value of RM136.0 billion, which grew 6.3 percent year-on-year in April 2023, this was reported by DOSM in its latest data release.
The report also presents statistics on sales value and volume index of Wholesale & Retail Trade by sub-sector. According to DOSM, the increase of 6.3 percent for Wholesale & Retail Trade was attributed to the Retail Trade sub-sector, which increased 12.9 percent or RM6.9 billion to register RM60.5 billion. Wholesale Trade also expanded by registering 3.2 percent or RM1.9 billion to RM60.9 billion. However, Motor Vehicles declined -5.1 percent to RM14.6 billion. For month-on-month comparison, the sales value of Wholesale & Retail Trade inched down -1.8 percent, caused by a fall in Motor Vehicles and Wholesale Trade sub-sectors of -19.8 percent and -1.1 percent, respectively.
Looking at the performance across sub-sectors, the Retail Trade sub-sector growth of 12.9 percent in April 2023 was supported by Retail Sales in Non-specialised Stores which elevated 18.0 percent or RM3.6 billion to RM23.4 billion. Other groups in this sub-sector also recorded positive growth namely Retail Sales in Specialised Stores 17.4 percent, Retail Sales of
Automotive Fuels 19.6 percent, Retail Sales of Food, Beverages & Tobacco 15.1 percent, Retail Sales of Household Goods 1.5 percent, Retail Sales Not in Stores, Stalls or Market 8.9 percent, and Retail Sales in Stalls & Market 13.1 percent. For month-on-month comparison, sales of this sub-sector went up 3.1 percent.
Commenting further on Wholesale Trade sub-sector, the increase of 3.2 percent was attributed to the Wholesale of Food, Beverages & Tobacco which rose RM0.9 billion or 7.7 percent to RM12.1 billion. This was followed by the Wholesale of
Household Goods 5.4 percent, Wholesale of Agricultural Raw Materials & Live Animals 5.1 percent, Non-specialised Wholesale Trade 8.5 percent, Wholesale of Machinery, Equipment & Supplies 2.7 percent, and Wholesale on a Fee & Contract Basis 8.0 percent. On the other hand, for monthly comparison, Wholesale Trade slipped -1.1 percent, mainly caused by Wholesale of Food, Beverages & Tobacco and Wholesale of Household Goods which decreased
-2.7 percent and -1.7 percent, respectively.
DOSM also informed that the -5.1 percent decrease in the Motor Vehicles sub-sector this month was dragged down by Sales of Motor Vehicles which slumped -17.3 percent or RM1.4 billion to RM6.8 billion. This was followed by Sales, Maintenance & Repair of Motorcycles which shrank -29.8 percent. For monthly comparison, this sub-sector also recorded a negative growth of -19.8 percent, contributed by a decrease in Sales of Motor Vehicles by -33.5 percent.
In terms of volume index, Wholesale & Retail Trade for April 2023 registered a year-on-year growth of 4.7 percent. DOSM also added that the expansion was attributed to Retail Trade and Wholesale Trade with 10.0 percent and 3.4 percent,
respectively. For seasonally adjusted volume index, it increased 6.5 percent month-on-month.
