Malaysia’s wholesale and retail trade sales increased by 15.2% year-on-year (y-o-y) to register RM128 billion in April 2022, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).
Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the increase in wholesale and retail trade was attributed to the retail trade sub-sector which rose RM9.3 billion or 20.9% to record RM53.6 billion.
“Wholesale trade also expanded 11.5% or RM6.1 billion to RM59.0 billion. Within the same period, motor vehicles surged 11.3% or RM1.6 billion to RM15.4 billion.
“Generally, the overall increase of RM16.9 billion or 15.2% in wholesale and retail trade was attributable to the Hari Raya celebration and the increase in online purchases,” he said in a statement on Thursday (June 9).
On a month-on-month (m-o-m) comparison, he said the sales value of wholesale and retail trade increased by 3.4%, sales of retail trade sub-sector went up 7.4%, and the wholesale trade sub-sector expanded by 3.1%.
Mohd Uzir also said on a monthly basis, the motor vehicles sub-sector decreased 7.7%, which was pushed down by sales of motor vehicles at 16.5%, as the industry continued to be affected by chip shortages as well as higher base recorded in March.
“The index of retail sale over the internet for April 2022 recorded a growth of 24.9% y-o-y (March 2022: 17%). For the seasonally adjusted value index, it grew 11.6% from the previous month,” he said.
He said in terms of volume index, the wholesale and retail trade for April 2022 registered a y-o-y growth of 10%.
“The expansion was contributed by retail trade which increased 16.6%.
“Similarly, motor vehicles and wholesale trade also recorded a positive growth with 7.2% and 3.3%, respectively. For the seasonally adjusted volume index, it went up 7.9% m-o-m,” the chief statistician said.
DOSM is conducting the Household Income, Expenditure and Basic Amenities Survey (HIES/BA) 2022 from Jan 1 to Dec 31, and the Annual Economic Survey 2022 (AES 2022) from April 15 to Sept 30.
Source: Bernama