KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's wholesale and retail trade recorded a sales value of RM142.4 billion, an increase of 5.4 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) in January 2024.
Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM) chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the y-o-y increase was driven by wholesale trade sub-sector, which rose 5.5 per cent or RM3.3 billion to register RM63.7 billion.
"Motor vehicles also expanded by 16.0 per cent or RM2.4 billion to RM17.6 billion, followed by retail trade with a growth of 2.6 per cent or RM1.5 billion to settle at RM61.1 billion," he said in a statement following the release of the Performance of Wholesale & Retail Trade, January 2024 report today.
However, for monthly comparison, sales value fell 1.1 per cent compared to December 2023.
This was contributed by retail trade which slipped 2.1 per cent, followed by motor vehicles sub-sector which contracted 5.1 per cent.
"In contrast, the wholesale trade sub-sector registered 1.2 per cent growth in this month," said Mohd Uzir.
Looking at the performance across sub-sectors, he said growth of 5.5 per cent y-o-y for wholesale trade in January was supported by other specialised wholesale which rose RM1.8 billion or 8.3 per cent to RM24.0 billion.
This was followed by wholesale of food, beverages and tobacco (4.6 per cent), wholesale of household goods (2.9 per cent), wholesale of agricultural raw materials and live animals (4.2 per cent), wholesale of machinery, equipment and supplies (4.5 per cent), non-specialised wholesale trade (4.3 per cent), and wholesale on a fee or contract basis (2.1 per cent).
For monthly comparison, wholesale trade rebounded 1.2 per cent, mainly contributed by wholesale of food, beverages and tobacco (6.7 per cent), wholesale of household goods (2.0 per cent), other specialised wholesale (0.6 per cent), and non-specialised wholesale trade (0.6 per cent).
For index of retail sale over the Internet, the index slipped 1.6 per cent y-o-y in January compared with 0.4 per cent in December 2023.
In contrast, for seasonally adjusted value, the index edged up 0.5 per cent against the previous month.
In terms of volume index, wholesale and retail trade for January registered a y-o-y growth of 3.5 per cent.
"The expansion was attributed to all sub-sectors namely motor vehicles (12.1 per cent), wholesale trade (4.0 per cent) and retail trade (1.4 per cent).
"For seasonally adjusted volume index, it inched down 0.9 per cent month-on-month," he added. - Bernama