KUALA LUMPUR: Sales of Malaysia's wholesale and retail trade rose 6.7 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM149 billion in July 2024, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM).

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the retail trade grew 6.4 per cent to record RM63.5 billion sales for the month.

"Wholesale trade also went up 5.5 per cent to record RM66.6 billion, followed by motor vehicles with an increase of 12.2 per cent to RM19.0 billion," he said in a statement today.

On a month-on-month (m-o-m) basis, wholesale and retail trade rebounded 2.1 per cent after dipping 1.3 per cent in June, bolstered by motor vehicle sales which increased 11.6 per cent.

DoSM said the retail trade subsector's y-o-y growth was led by retail sales in non-specialised stores which grew 7.7 per cent to RM24.4 billion, while the wholesale trade subsector's y-o-y growth was supported by wholesale of machinery, equipment and supplies which rose 10.2 per cent to RM5.4 billion.

Meanwhile, the 12.2 per cent y-o-y growth for the motor vehicles subsector was driven by sales of motorvehicles, which recorded a double-digit growth of 14.0 per cent, it said.

For the index of retail sale over the Internet, the agency said the index grew 5.7 per cent y-o-y in July 2024 compared to 4.8 per cent y-o-y in June 2024. For the seasonally adjusted value, the index inched up 1.5 per cent against the previous month.

DoSM said in terms of the volume index, wholesale and retail trade for July 2024 registered a y-o-y growth of 5.5 per cent, contributed by all sub-sectors, namely motor vehicles (10.8 per cent), wholesale trade (5.2 per cent) and retail trade (4.6 per cent).

"For the seasonally adjusted volume index, it went up 2.1 per cent m-o-m," it said.

DoSM noted that the government has declared Oct 20 of each year as the National Statistics Day (MyStats Day) and this year's theme is "Statistics is the Essence of Life."