KUALA LUMPUR, July 1 — Malaysia’s distributive trade is expected to perform better, moving forward, following the easing of the Movement Control Order (MCO), said MIDF Research.
In a note today, it said the country’s distributive trade fell by a record low of 36.6 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) in April, manifesting the impact of a full month of MCO.
“Three major components, namely motor vehicles, wholesale as well as retail, saw double digit contractions,” it said in a note today.
Wholesale, which accounted for the largest share of total distributive trade, fell by 26.3 per cent y-o-y.
Similarly, retail sales and motor vehicles declined 32.4 per cent y-o-y and 93.2 per cent y-o-y, respectively.
“The significant drop in motor vehicles sales was largely expected as consumers avoided purchases of big ticket items amidst the ongoing Covid-19 crisis,” it said.
The government imposed the MCO on March 18 to curb the spread of Covid-19, which was subsequently replaced by the Conditional MCO on May 1 and the Recovery MCO on June 10. — Bernama
