KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia recorded wholesale and retail trade sales of RM110.4 billion in November 2020, down by 1.2% year-on-year (y-o-y), according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia.
Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the negative growth was mainly due to a 2.3% (RM1.1 billion) contraction in retail trade to RM44.8 billion from the same month in 2019.
Wholesale trade also recorded a decrease of 0.7% (RM0.4 billion) to RM52.8 billion.
“On the other hand, motor vehicles continued a positive growth with an increase of RM0.1 billion or 1.2% to achieve RM12.8 billion,” he said in a statement today.
Meanwhile, month-on-month sales value of the wholesale and retail trade fell 0.1% in November 2020 as compared to October partly due to implementation and extension of the conditional movement control order beyond the Klang Valley and Sabah aimed at containing the Covid-19 pandemic,” Mohd Uzir said.
On to sub-sector performance, he said for the retail trade, a negative growth of 2.3% was due to sales of non-essential products, namely retail sale in specialised stores with -6.2%, retail sale of household goods (-4.4%), retail sale of cultural and recreation goods (-5.1%) and retail sale of information and communication equipment (-1.3%).
However, sales of essential goods recorded a positive growth, namely retail sale in non-specialised stores which registered a y-o-y increase of 2.3% to RM16.1 billion, followed by retail sale of food, beverages and tobacco which rose 6.3% to RM2.8 billion.
“Retail trade not in stores, stalls or markets also expanded 10.9% to RM0.4 billion, followed by retail sale via stalls and markets which increased 7.2% to RM0.1 billion,” he said.
On the 0.7% drop in wholesale trade sales, he said it was mainly due to other specialised wholesale and wholesale on a fee or contract basis which declined by 6.8% and 6.6%, respectively.
“However, wholesale of food, beverages and tobacco grew 4.7% to settle at RM10.2 billion. This was followed by wholesale household goods which increased 3.6% to RM10.8 billion. Similarly, wholesale of machinery, equipment and supplies also expanded 2.9% y-o-y to generate sales of RM4.6 billion,” Mohd Uzir explained.
The online retail sales index, which shows e-commerce activity, surged 27.7% year-on-year.
The seasonally adjusted retail sales index went up 5.7% against the previous month.
In terms of volume index, wholesale and retail trade fell by 1.6% y-o-y due to a 3.2% drop in retail trade and 0.5% decline in wholesale trade.
In contrast, motor vehicles recorded a positive volume growth of 0.4%.
As for the seasonally adjusted volume index, it inched up 0.7% month-on-month, he added. – Bernama, January 12, 2021
