KUALA LUMPUR (11 Aug): Malaysia’s wholesale and retail trade fell 10.3% year-on-year (year-on-year) to RM92.2 billion in June, dragged down by the motor vehicle sub-sector.
Month-on-month, the value of sales fell 14.8% from May, Malaysia’s Department of Statistics said in a statement.
Comparatively, the country’s wholesale and retail trade in June 2020 recorded a year-on-year growth of 21.8%.
Chief Statistician Datuk Seri, Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin, said growth in June was the weakest so far this year as Malaysia entered full lockdown amid worsening Covid cases -19.
“The motor vehicle sub-sector suffered the most, plunging 92.4% or RM11.2 billion to register only RM0.9 billion in sales. Wholesale trade fell by 2.9% or RM1.2 billion to RM40.6 billion, on the other hand, wholesale trade increased by 3.6% or RM1.8 billion to reach 50.7 billion. billion RM,” he said.
Mohd Uzir said the abysmal performance of the motor vehicle sub-sector was due to a 94.8% or RM6.4 billion drop in motor vehicle sales to RM0.3 billion.
This was followed by the sale of motor vehicle parts and accessories which fell by 88.2% to RM0.3 billion. Similarly, maintenance and repair of motor vehicles fell by 89.6% to RM0.2 billion, followed by the sale, maintenance and repair of motorcycles which fell by 92.3%. per cent to RM0.1 billion, he said.
“As a month-on-month comparison, sales in this sub-sector also saw a significant decline of 92%,” he added.
On the retail sub-sector, Mohd Uzir said the 2.9% contraction was attributed to retail at non-specialty stores which fell by 7.2% or RM1.1 billion to RM14.8 billion, the first negative growth this year despite being allowed to operate during the lockdown period.
Similarly, the retail sale of motor fuels also fell by 21.6% to a record high of RM2.5 billion. Next come retail sales in specialized stores and retail sales of food, beverages and tobacco, which fell by 0.6% and 0.5% respectively.
“On a monthly basis, the retail trade sub-sector declined by 6.4%, with all groups within this sub-sector recording negative growth,” Mohd Uzir noted.
At the same time, the index of retail sales of all types of products on the Internet, which reflects e-commerce activity, recorded an 8.7% year-on-year growth, compared to a growth of 15.8% in May.
