KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia’s wholesale and retail trade recorded a sales value of RM142.7 billion, a 6.5% increase year-on-year (y-o-y) in September 2023, said the Statistics Department, DoSM.
It said sales value increased marginally by 0.1% on a month-on-month comparison.
Chief statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the increase of 6.5% y-o-y for wholesale and retail trade in September 2023 was attributed to the wholesale trade sub-sector, which rose 6.9% or RM4.1 billion to RM64.2 billion.
“Retail trade also expanded by registering 5.9% or RM3.4 billion to RM61.1 billion, followed by motor vehicles with an increase of 7.0% or RM1.1 billion to settle at RM17.5 billion,” he said in a statement today.
Uzir said September’s marginal increase of 0.1% from the previous month was attributed to retail trade, which expanded 0.9% or RM0.5 billion, followed by wholesale trade with 0.5% or RM0.3 billion.
“On the other hand, motor vehicles went down 3.6%,” he said.
Uzir said that looking at the performance across the sub-sectors, the 6.9% y-o-y growth in the wholesale trade was contributed by the other specialised wholesale sub-sector, which rose RM2.0 billion or 8.6% to RM25.1 billion.
He said the retail trade sub-sector’s increase of 5.9% y-o-y in September was supported by retail sales in non-specialised stores, which grew 8.9% or RM1.9 billion to RM23.2 billion.
“The y-o-y growth of 7.0% for the motor vehicles sub-sector in September was fuelled by sales of motor vehicles parts and accessories, which accelerated 17.2% or RM0.7 billion to record RM4.6 billion. This was followed by maintenance and repair of motor vehicles (18.6%) and sales of motor vehicles (3.8%).
“For monthly comparison, this sub-sector contracted 3.6%, pulled down by sales of motor vehicles (-4.9%), sales, maintenance and repair of motorcycles (-8.6%), and sales of motor vehicles parts and accessories (-1.2%),” he said.
Uzir said the index of retail sales over the internet recorded 2.0% growth y-o-y in September 2023 as compared to 1.0% in August 2023.
“For seasonally adjusted value, the index went up 0.3% as against the previous month,” he added. – November 9, 2023