• Growth recorded in all wholesale and retail sub-sectors

• Sustained growth in global retail sales but accelerating inflation to eventually sap consumption

• Higher inflation to sap some momentum from consumer spending

Malaysia’s distributive trade sales continued to register a double-digit growth and expanded by 41.0% YoY with a sales value of RM130.7bn in July, on increasing retail spending. The expansion was the tenth successive months of increase. The positive growth was contributed by all sub-sectors.

Retail trade expanded 37.5% YoY to RM56.6bn, pointing to the tenth straight month of increase, amid a further recovery in consumption in the wake of COVID disruptions. Sales growth was strong for retail trade in non-specialized stores (39.1%), as did in specialized stores (47.1%) and retail sale of automotive fuel in specialised stores (73.7%) other household equipment (28.8%). Meanwhile, wholesale trade generated sales value of RM59.7bn with a growth of 20.6% YoY in July. This increase was attributed to wholesale of household goods (35.0%), wholesale on a fee or contract basis (32.5%) and other specialised wholesale (22.0%).

Sales value of motor vehicles increased by 613.8% YoY to RM14.4bn in July. A total of 48,922 new vehicles were delivered to buyers in July, a decrease of 14,641 units from the 63,563 vehicles sold in June, or a 23% drop in volume. Compared to the same month in 2021, July’s total is 552% (or 41,423 units) higher than the 7,499 units from the same last year, when showroom sales continued to be affected due to the restrictions brought about by phase one of the National Recovery Plan (NRP). Meanwhile, the total industry volume for the first seven months of 2022 stands at 380,595 units, ahead by 48.3% (or 123,918 units) over the 256,677 units managed during the same timeframe last year.

On a monthly basis, the sales value of wholesale & retail trade declined by 1.6% in July following a 2.5% gain in June. Retail sales increased marginally by 0.8% MoM, however, wholesale trade and sales of vehicles decreased by 1.4% MoM and 10.5% MoM, respectively.

Source: BIMB Securities Research - 12 Sept 2022