KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia’s wholesale and retail trade sales grew 12.8% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM407.4 billion in the first quarter of 2023, said the Statistics Department (DoSM).
Chief statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the RM46.4 billion increase was underpinned by the retail trade sub-sector which expanded 19.5%, or RM28.8 billion, to RM176.4 billion.
“This was followed by wholesale trade which rose 5.5%, or RM9.4 billion, to reach RM181.1 billion and motor vehicles which grew 19.4%, or RM8.1 billion, to record RM49.9 billion in this quarter,” he said in a statement today.
For the month of March 2023, Uzir said wholesale and retail trade sales grew 11.9% y-o-y to RM138.5 billion, attributed to the retail trade sub-sector, which saw a 17.7%, or RM8.8 billion, increase in sales to RM58.7 billion.
“Wholesale trade also expanded by 7.6%, or RM4.4 billion, to RM61.6 billion. Within the same period, motor vehicles (sales) rose 9.3%, or RM1.5 billion, to RM18.2 billion,” he said.
For a month-on-month (m-o-m) comparison, he said wholesale and retail trade sales grew 3.5%, supported by wholesale trade with a 4.1% growth, motor vehicles (10.6%), and retail trade (0.9%).
Meanwhile, Uzir said the index of retail sales over the Internet for March 2023 recorded an 11.7% growth y-o-y (February 2023: 9.4%).
“For seasonally adjusted value, the index contracted -0.1% as against the previous month,” he said.
In terms of volume index, Uzir said, the wholesale and retail trade for March 2023 registered a y-o-y growth of 9.4%.
“The expansion was attributed to retail trade with a double-digit growth of 13.8%. Wholesale trade and motor vehicles also recorded positive growth of 6.7% and 5.6%, respectively.
“For the seasonally adjusted volume index, it went down 0.9% m-o-m,” he said. – Bernama, May 10, 2023
