by AZALEA AZUAR / Pic by MUHD AMIN NAHARUL
MALAYSIA’S wholesale and retail trade fell 14.7% to RM92.7 billion due to the prolonged Covid-19 lockdowns this year.
Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the motor vehicles subsector suffered the most with an 85.4% drop or RM11.8 billion to register RM2 billion.
This is followed by retail trade (-8.1% or RM3.6 billion to RM41.1 billion) and wholesale trade (-1.1% or RM0.5 billion to reach RM49.5 billion).
“However, for month-on-month (MoM) comparison, sales value increased marginally 0.5%, reversing from -14.8% reported last month as few states entered Phase 2 of the National Recovery Plan, which allowed selected economic and distribution sectors to be operational,” he said.
The decline in the motor vehicles sub-sector was a result from the decline of sales of motor vehicles (-83.8% or RM6.8 billion to RM1.3
billion), sale of motor vehicles parts and accessories (-87.4% to record RM0.4 billion), and maintenance and repair of motor vehicles (-88.7% to RM0.2 billion) followed by sale, maintenance and repair of motorcycles (-86.9% to reach RM0.1 billion).
“On the other hand, for MoM comparison, sales of this sub-sector registered a significant increase of 118.6%, spearheaded by sales of motor vehicles which grew 275.1% as showrooms and sales centres were allowed to operate in Phase 2 states,” he explained.
The retail trade subsector contracted 8.1% due to the 10.8% or RM1.8 billion to RM15 billion decline in retail sale in non-specialised stores as well as an 11.1% tumble in retail sale in specialised stores to a record RM7.9 billion, retail sale of automotive fuels (-14.1%), retail sale of household goods (-3.7%), retail sale of cultural and recreation goods (-4.2%), retail sale of food, beverages & tobacco (-2.7%), and retail sale of information & communication equipment (-0.3%).
Retail trade went up 1.4% MoM with most groups in this sub-sector posting positive growth.
“The decline of -1.1% in the wholesale trade sub-sector this month was attributed to wholesale of household goods which decreased 12.1% or RM1.3 billion to RM9.2 billion. This was followed by wholesale of machinery and equipment which fell 10.4% or RM0.5 billion to RM4 billion,” Uzir added.
“Index of retail sales over the internet recorded 9.4% growth year-on-year (June 2021: 8.7%). As for seasonally adjusted, the index rebounded 4.7% against -2.8% recorded in the previous month,” he said.
Separately, Malaysia’s Industrial Production Index (IPI) declined by 5.2% in July 2021 year-on-year (YoY) due to a decrease in the manufacturing index (-6.5%) and electricity index (-6.6%).
The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) stated that the manufacturing sector recorded a downturn of 6.5% in July this year, compared to 0.2% in its corresponding period in 2020, which was mainly caused by the downturn of subsectors transport equipment and other manufactures (-43.8%), non-metallic mineral products, basic metal and fabricated metal products (-27.6%), wood products, furniture, paper products and printing (-23.7%) and domestic-oriented industries (-24.7%).
The electricity sector output fell 6.6% in the same period compared to the same month of the previous year.
On the other hand, the mining index increased 0.6%, supported by the 4.1% rise in the natural gas index, while crude oil and condensate index fell by 3.6%.