KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 8): The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) announced that Malaysia’s wholesale and retail trade as at December 2022 rose to a record RM137.3 billion, expanding by 13.8% from December 2021 figures.
This was due to the retail trade sub-sector reporting an increase of 22.7% or RM11 billion to RM59.5 billion, while the wholesale trade sub-sector rose 4.7% or RM2.7 billion to RM60.3 billion.
Motor vehicles sales had also expanded by 20.3% or RM3 billion to RM17.5 billion, said DOSM in a statement on Wednesday (Feb 8).
“For month-on-month comparison, sales value of wholesale and retail trade rose 2.3%, an increase of RM3 billion, mainly supported by motor vehicles which grew 9.3%,” said chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin.
In terms of performance across sub-sectors, retail sales in non-specialised stores in retail trade grew 24.7% or RM4.4 billion to RM22.4 billion, while sales in specialised stores rose by 30.7%. Likewise, other sub-sectors also recorded positive growth, namely automotive fuels (44.4%), household goods (12.6%), food, beverages and tobacco (16.0%), information and communication equipment (9.8%), cultural and recreation goods (3.9%), stalls and market (17.8%), and retail sales not in stores, stalls or market (11.4%).
“For month-on-month comparison, sales of this sub-sector [retail trade] went up 1.2%,” said Uzir.
The motor vehicle sub-sector's growth in December 2022 was underpinned by an expansion of motor vehicle sales by 24.8% or RM2 billion to RM10 billion, followed by sales of motor vehicle parts and accessories and maintenance (27.3%) and repair of motor vehicles (30.9%).
“However, sales, maintenance and repair of motorcycles slipped 29.8% in Dec 2022. On a monthly basis, sales of this sub-sector increased 9.3% ... mainly contributed by sales of motor vehicles which rose 13.8%,” Uzir stated in the statement.
Additionally, the wholesale trade sub-sector recorded positive growth due to the wholesale of household goods sub-sector which rose by RM900 million or 7.6% to RM12.3 billion in December 2022.
“This was followed by wholesale of agricultural raw materials and live animals [at] 18.2% to record RM5.5 billion. Similarly, wholesale of food, beverages and tobacco also increased 6.1% to RM12.2 billion.”
“On the other hand, other specialised wholesale decreased 0.3% to settle at RM22.5 billion.
“For monthly comparison, wholesale trade grew 1.4% which was mainly contributed by other specialised wholesale which increased 1.7%,” according to Uzir.
Fourth quarter trade reach RM405.2 bil
Retail and wholesale trade in the fourth quarter of 2022 reached RM405.2 billion, while total sales for the year hit RM1.6 trillion.
In its quarterly performance, wholesale and retail trade had increased by 14.3% underpinned by the retail trade sub-sector that expanded by 23.8% or RM33.9 billion to RM176.5 billion. Wholesale trade rose by 5.9% or RM10 billion to RM179.7 billion, while the motor vehicle sub-sector grew by 16.3% or RM6.9 billion to reach RM49 billion in this quarter.
“As for quarter-on-quarter comparison, this sector edged up 1.8%,” added Uzir.
On its yearly sales growth, the wholesale and retail trade ended 2022 with a 19.6% increase and accumulated a total sales to RM1.6 trillion, underpinned by retail trade which increased by 23.9% or RM127.5 billion to RM661.1 billion. Wholesale trade expanded by 10.7% to RM710.3 billion in 2022, while the motor vehicles sub-sector recorded higher sales by 47.6% to RM183.2 billion as compared to 2021.
“As for pre-pandemic comparison, sales of wholesale and retail trade in 2022 surpassed those recorded in 2019 by RM228.1 billion,” said Uzir.
In terms of retail sales over the Internet for December 2022, Uzir added that the sector recorded 10.2% growth year-on-year.
“For seasonally adjusted value, the index rose 2.9% as against the previous month. Meanwhile, the fourth quarter increased 12.2% year-on-year, while the index rose 19.0% annually.”
Following that, Uzir stated that the volume index for the sector for December 2022 registered year-on-year growth of 9.5%, while retail trade expanded by 17.4%. Motor vehicles recorded positive growth of 9.7% and wholesale trade increased 1.1%, while the seasonally adjusted volume index went down by 1.8% month-on-month.