Wholesale, retail trade value increases by 41% in July

The growth is supported by the increase in the retail trade sector

by NURUL SUHAIDI / pic TMR FILE 

THE country’s wholesale and retail trade hit RM130.7 billion in July 2022, registering a 41% growth year-on-year (YoY) due to the increase in the retail trade sector, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM) said.

DoSM chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the retail trade subsector rose RM15.4 billion or 37.5 % to record at RM56.6 billion.

“Motor vehicles expanded from RM12.4 billion to RM14.4 billion representing an increase of 613.8%,” he said in a statement today.

He added that within the same period, the wholesale trade surged 20.6% or RM10.2 billion to RM59.7 billion. Whereas, for month-on-month (MoM) comparison, sales value was down by 1.6% due to motor vehicles subsector which sank 10.5%.

Meanwhile, on the performance across subsectors, retail trade subsector growth of 37.5% in July 2022 was supported by retail sales in non-specialised stores which grew 39.1% or RM5.9 billion to RM20.8 billion.

“Likewise, other groups in this subsector namely retail sales in specialised stores, automotive fuels and household goods also seen a positive growth with an increase by 47.1%, 73.7% and 28.8%, respectively,” Uzir said.

He noted that the 613.8% growth in the motor vehicles subsector in July was lifted by sales of motor vehicles 431.5% or RM5.7 billion to RM7 billion, followed by sales of motor vehicle parts and accessories; maintenance and repair of motor vehicles; as well as sales, maintenance and repair of motorcycles.

“The increase in wholesale trade subsector with 20.6% was mainly attributed to other specialised wholesale 22%,” he said.

Among the groups that contributed to this growth were wholesale of household goods (35%), wholesale of agricultural raw materials and live animals (17.8%), wholesale of machinery, equipment and supplies (20%) and wholesale of food, beverage and tobacco (7.2%).

As for the volume index, he highlighted that the wholesale and retail trade registered a YoY growth of 33.7%, contributed by motor vehicles and retail trade which increased 681.6% and 31.6%, respectively.

Similar to retail trade, wholesale trade saw good increase of 10.8%. However, the seasonally adjusted volume index, it decreased 1.4% MoM.