KUALA LUMPUR, June 11 — Malaysia’s wholesale and retail trade expanded 6.6 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) in April 2024 with RM144.9 billion in sales, said the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).
Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the increase was driven by a 5.5 per cent rise, or RM3.3 billion, in the retail trade subsector to RM63.8 billion.
"Wholesale trade also grew by 4.8 per cent or RM2.9 billion to RM63.8 billion, followed by motor vehicles with an increase of 18.1 per cent or RM2.6 billion to RM17.3 billion," he said in a statement today.
For monthly comparison, wholesale and retail trade fell 0.6 per cent from the previous month due to the decrease recorded in motor vehicles and wholesale trade which declined 8.2 per cent and 0.4 per cent, respectively.
On the subsectors' performance, Uzir said the 5.5 per cent y-o-y growth in April's retail trade was contributed by non-specialised store sales which grew 5.2 per cent or RM1.2 billion to RM24.7 billion.
"On a month-on-month (m-o-m) comparison, sales of this sub-sector rose 1.5 per cent," he said.
The increase of 4.8 per cent y-o-y in the wholesale trade sub-sector in April was supported by other specialised wholesale, which rose RM1.0 billion or 4.2 per cent to RM23.9 billion.
Conversely, for monthly comparison, the wholesale trade went down 0.4 per cent.
"The y-o-y growth of 18.1 per cent for the motor vehicles sub-sector in April was fuelled by motor vehicles sales, which surged 26.5 per cent or RM1.8 billion to record RM8.6 billion.
"This was followed by motor vehicle parts and accessories sales (11.8 per cent), and the maintenance and repair of motor vehicles (13.1 per cent)," Uzir said.
For monthly comparison, the subsector contracted 8.2 per cent, dragged down by motor vehicle sales which declined by 13.4 per cent, as well as the sales, maintenance, and repair of motorcycles which fell by 21.2 per cent.
In terms of volume index, April's wholesale and retail trade registered a y-o-y growth of 4.5 per cent, attributed to all subsectors, namely motor vehicles (17.1 per cent), retail trade (3.5 per cent), and wholesale trade (2.7 per cent).
The seasonally adjusted volume index rebounded 5.5 per cent m-o-m.
— Bernama
