Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin (Photo by Low Yen Yeing/The Edge)

KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 8): Malaysia’s wholesale and retail trade recorded a sales value of RM143.9 billion in December 2023, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).

In a statement on Thursday, the department said wholesale and retail trade sales value for the fourth quarter of 2023 (4Q2023) recorded a total of RM428.8 billion, bringing the whole year’s total sales to RM1.7 trillion.

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the increase of 4.8% year-on-year (y-o-y) for wholesale and retail trade in December was driven by the retail trade sub-sector, which rose 5% or RM3 billion to register RM62.4 billion.

“Wholesale trade also expanded by registering [an increase of] 4.4% or RM2.6 billion to RM62.9 billion, followed by motor vehicles with a growth of 5.9% or RM1.0 billion to settle at RM18.6 billion,” he said.

Mohd Uzir noted that the 5.8% increase in 4Q2023 for wholesale and retail trade was underpinned by the wholesale trade sub-sector, which rose RM9.8 billion or 5.4% to RM189.4 billion.

In addition, he said wholesale and retail sales ended 2023 with a 7.7% increase, spurred by retail trade, which increased RM59.7 billion or 9% to settle at RM720.8 billion.

In a separate statement, the DOSM said Malaysia’s volume index of wholesale and retail trade registered a growth of 4.2% y-o-y in 4Q2023 to reach 153.1 points, bringing the overall performance for 2023 to 5.6%.

The chief statistician said the increase was attributed to the motor vehicles sub-sector, which soared 9.8%, followed by wholesale trade (4.6% better) and retail trade (up 2.9%).

“For quarter-on-quarter comparison, the volume index edged up 0.8%, supported by motor vehicles, which grew 3.7%,” Mohd Uzir added.