Wholesale and retail trade sales grew 12.4% in Jan 2023 — DOSM

• The retail trade sub-sector growth of 21.7% in January 2023 was supported by retail sales in non-specialised stores which grew 24.6% or RM4.5 billion to RM22.7 billion.

KUALA LUMPUR (March 13): Malaysia’s wholesale and retail trade grew 12.4% year-on-year (y-o-y) in January 2023 to record monthly sales value of RM135.1 billion, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said.

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the increase was attributed to the retail trade sub-sector, which recorded an increase of RM10.6 billion or 21.7% y-o-y to RM59.6 billion.

He said motor vehicles also expanded by 20.1% y-o-y or RM2.5 billion to RM15.2 billion while wholesale trade went up 3.1% y-o-y or RM1.8 billion to RM60.4 billion.

“However, for month-on-month (m-o-m) comparison, sales value of wholesale and retail trade declined 1.6 per cent, mainly contributed by the motor vehicles sub-sector which decreased 13.4 per cent,” he said in a statement today.

Mohd Uzir said the retail trade sub-sector growth of 21.7% in January 2023 was supported by retail sales in non-specialised stores which grew 24.6% or RM4.5 billion to RM22.7 billion.

“For m-o-m comparison, sales of this sub-sector went up 0.2%,” he said.

He said the 20.1% growth in the motor vehicles sub-sector was attributed to sales of motor vehicles, which increased 25% or RM1.5 billion to RM7.7 billion.

“However, on a monthly basis, sales of this sub-sector decreased 13.4% influenced by sales of motor vehicles, which declined 23.4%,” he said.

He said for the wholesale trade sub-sector, the increase of 3.1% was attributed to the wholesale of household goods, which registered an increase of RM1 billion or 8.6% to RM12.8 billion.

Mohd Uzir said for monthly comparison, wholesale trade grew 0.1%, which mainly contributed to the wholesale of household goods, which increased 4.4% or RM0.5 billion to RM12.8 billion.

Additionally, he said the index of retail sale over the internet for January 2023 recorded 9.6% growth y-o-y versus 10.2% y-o-y growth in December 2022.

“For seasonally adjusted value, the index rose 1.3% as against the previous month,” he said.

He said in terms of volume index, wholesale and retail trade for January 2023 registered a y-o-y growth of 8.6%, attributed to retail trade, which increased 16.2%.

“Similarly, motor vehicles and wholesale trade also recorded positive growths of 10.8% and 0.3%, respectively.

“However, the seasonally adjusted volume index went down 4.4% m-o-m,” he added.