Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (March 19): Malaysia's retail industry growth rate slowed to 2.7% year-on-year for the fourth quarter of 2018 (4Q18), compared to the 3.1% recorded in the same quarter a year earlier, significantly below expectations of 4.7% growth for the quarter.

In a statement today, the Retail Group Malaysia said the year-end festival and school holiday period failed to boost growth rate for 2018, and was consistent with the dampened consumer sentiment index as reported by the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER).

"For the whole of 2018, the retail sale growth rate was 3.9% as compared to the same period a year ago. The three-month tax holiday failed to lift the sluggish retail industry.

"For the sixth consecutive year, retail industry performance lagged behind GDP growth rate," it said.

The supermarket and hypermarket subsector was the worst performer, reporting a 4% decline for the quarter and 5% decline for the year.

On the other hand, the best performer was the pharmacy and personal care subsector, which grew 8.7% and 10.2% for the quarter and the year respectively.

Looking ahead, members of the association expect conditions to stabilise and see growth of 3.1% for the first quarter of 2019.

This will be contributed by sustained 4.4% expected growth by the department store cum supermarket operators and a rebound in department store growth to 7.6% after a dismal performance in 2018.

However, supermarket and hypermarket operators do not see recovery ahead, expecting negative growth of 7.6% for the first quarter of 2019.

"Based on our first quarterly projections of retail sales for 2019, Retail Group Malaysia estimates 4.5% growth rate in retail sale for 2019 or RM108.3 billion," it said.

Retail activity is expected to pick up in the second half of the year, with the association forecasting retail growth of 3.9% and 5.8% for the third and fourth quarters respectively.

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