KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 11 — Malaysia's wholesale and retail trade value expanded 5.8 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM114.2 billion in August 2019, said the Department of Statistics Malaysia.
In a statement today, chief statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin attributed the growth to retail trade, which rose 6.7 per cent y-o-y, driven by sub-sector retail sale of food, beverages and tobacco of nine per cent y-o-y.
“This was followed by retail sale in non-specialised stores and retail sale of other goods in specialised stores, which registered 7.8 per cent y-o-y and 7.7 per cent y-o-y growths, respectively,” he said.
For the month under review, Mohd Uzir said sales value of wholesale trade rose 6.3 per cent y-o-y, while motor vehicles continued to record positive growth of 1.1 per cent after experiencing a decline for two consecutive months since June 2019.
On a month-on-month (m-o-m) basis, he said the wholesale and retail trade value increased 1.4 per cent, while wholesale trade sub-sector grew 3.3 per cent after a contraction of 2.3 per cent in July 2019.
However, he said motor vehicles and retail trade contracted 0.1 per cent m-o-m and 0.2 per cent m-o-m respectively in August 2019.
In terms of volume index, Mohd Uzir said wholesale and retail trade posted an increase of 6.1 per cent as against the corresponding month of the previous year, propelled by retail trade which registered a y-o-y growth of 7.6 per cent.
“Wholesale trade volume index rose 5.9 per cent y-o-y, while motor vehicles volume index increased 1.5 per cent y-o-y in this month,” he said. — Bernama
