Shoppers return to boost sales to record high of RM137.3bil
Published on: Wednesday, February 08, 2023
By: FMT
The shopping spree is back, driving wholesale and retail sales up to new levels. (Facebook pic)
PETALING JAYA: The serious shoppers are back in droves. Collectively, they drove monthly wholesale and retail sales to a new high of RM137.3 billion in December 2022.
For the last quarter of the year (Q4 2022) sales volume hit RM405.2 billion, bringing the year’s total to RM1.6 trillion, according to data presented in the performance of wholesale and retail trade by the statistics department.
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Chief Statistician Uzir Mahidin said in a statement today the December 2022 figure represented a 13.8% increase over the same month in 2021.
He said the retail sub-sector recorded an RM11 billion or 22.7% growth to RM59.5 billion.
In the same period, the wholesale sub-sector saw sales rise 4.7% or RM2.7 billion to RM60.3 billion.
Month-on-month (m-o-m), combined retail and wholesale trade rose 2.3% or RM3 billion, driven mostly by the 9.3% boost in motor vehicle sales.
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Uzir attributed the strong growth of 22.7% in retail trade in December 2022 to the 24.7% or RM4.4 billion expansion to RM22.4 billion in non-specialised stores.
Other groups in the sub-sector that also recorded impressive growth were the specialised stores (up 30.7%), automotive fuels (44.4%), household goods (12.6%), food, beverages and tobacco (16%), information and communication equipment (9.8%), cultural and recreational goods (3.9%), retail sales not in stores, stalls or markets (11.4%) and sales in stalls and markets (17.8%).
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In the wholesale sub-sector, the household goods segment was the main driver in the 4.7% rise in sales year-on-year (y-o-y) in December 2022.
The segment saw a RM900 million or 7.6% jump to RM12.3 billion.
This was followed by the agricultural raw materials and live animals segment (up 18.2% to RM5.5 billion) and the food, beverages and tobacco segment (up 6.1% to RM12.2 billion).
However, the other specialised goods segment saw a 0.3% drop to RM22.5 billion.
Month on month, wholesale trade was up 1.4%, driven mostly by other specialised goods which rose 1.7%.
Uzir said the improved quarterly performance in both wholesale and retail trade was mostly underpinned by the retail sub-sector, which expanded RM33.9 billion or 23.8% to RM176.5 billion, while the wholesale sub-sector saw a 5.9% or RM10 billion growth to RM179.7 billion.
Motor vehicles also recorded a huge increase of 16.3% or RM6.9 billion to RM49 billion in the quarter. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, it was up 1.8%.
He said the index of retail sale over the internet for December 2022 saw a 10.2% growth y-o-y.
“For seasonally adjusted value, the index rose 2.9% compared with the previous month but was up 19% annually,” he added.
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