MALAYSIA’S wholesale and retail trade sector continued to recover with sales recorded at RM111.4 billion in August, posting year-on-year (y-o-y) growth of -2.3% compared to -3.5% in July, according to the Statistics Department.

In a report released today, chief statistician Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said month-on-month (m-o-m) sales value also continued growing by 2.5% in August compared to July, the highest sales since the implementation of the movement-control order (MCO).

The sales exceeded the pre-MCO value registered in February, which amounted to RM109 billion.

“All sub-sectors continued to recover, led by motor vehicles, which registered a positive growth for two consecutive months to record 1% compared with August last year.

“Retail trade was also on the recovery path with -1.5% from -3.8% in the previous month, while the wholesale trade improved from -4.5% in July to -3.9% in August this year,” he said.

On sub-sector performance, Uzir said motor vehicle sales recorded the highest growth of 3.1% y-o-y to achieve RM7.9 billion, encouraging growth due mainly to the tax relief announced by the government through the National Economic Recovery Plan.

It was followed by motorcycle sales, maintenance and repairs, which registered sales value of RM1.0 billion – a 2.4% growth, he said.

However, he said sales of motor vehicle parts and accessories contracted by 2.6% compared with the corresponding month of the previous year to record RM3.1 billion, while the maintenance and repairs of motor vehicles also saw a 2.3% decline to RM1.7 billion.

For retail trade, Uzir said the negative growth of 1.5% was due to the decline in sales of non-essential products, namely retail sales of cultural and recreation goods at -9.7%, retail sales in specialised stores (-7.2%), retail sales of household goods (-4.2%), and retail sales of information and communication equipment (-3.8%).

Meanwhile, the sales of essential products recorded a positive growth, mainly in retail sales in the non-specialised stores, which registered an increase of 4.7% to RM16.7 billion y-o-y.

He said the online retail sales index, which portrays e-commerce activity, also expanded to record a 37.4% growth y-o-y.

In terms of volume, he said the wholesale and retail trade grew -2.4% y-o-y – the decline attributed to wholesale trade at -3.4%.

“This was followed by retail trade, which contracted by 2.3%, while motor vehicles continued to expand to register positive growth of 0.9%, and as for seasonal adjusted volume index, it grew 2.4% m-o-m,” he added. – Bernama, October 12, 2020.