KUALA LUMPUR (April 14): Malaysia’s full-year retail sales growth forecast has been revised downwards to -5.5% in 2020 from 4.6% growth projected in December 2019 as Covid-19 and the Movement Control Order has dragged down retail growth in the first two quarters of 2020.

First-quarter retail sales are expected to contract by 18.8% while second-quarter retail sales are expected to dip by 9.3%, said Retail Group Malaysia in its “Preliminary report on Malaysia retail industry during Covid-19 pandemic (April 2020)” released today.

Nevertheless, the retail sales trend is expected to improve and post positive growth of 2.5% and 3.3% in the third and fourth quarter of 2020 respectively.

The last time Malaysia’s full-year retail sales growth contracted was in 1998 during the first Asian financial crisis.

At the time, retail sales plunged by a whopping 20%.

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