KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s wholesale and retail trade sales increased by 15.2% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM128bil in April 2022, according to the Statistics Department.

       Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the increase in wholesale and retail trade was attributed to the retail trade sub-sector, which rose RM9.3bil or 20.9% to record RM53.6bil.

       “Wholesale trade also expanded by 11.5% or RM6.1bil to RM59bil. Within the same period, motor vehicles surged 11.3% or RM1.6bil to RM15.4bil.

       “Generally, the overall increase of RM16.9bil or 15.2% in wholesale and retail trade was attributable to the Hari Raya celebration and the increase in online purchases,” he said in a statement.

       On a month-on-month comparison (m-o-m), he said the sales value of wholesale and retail trade increased by 3.4%, sales of retail trade sub-sector went up 7.4% and wholesale trade sub-sector expanded by 3.1%.

       Mohd Uzir also said on a monthly basis, the motor vehicles sub-sector decreased 7.7%, which was pushed down by sales of motor vehicles at 16.5%, as the industry continued to be affected by chip shortages as well as higher base recorded in March.

       “The index of retail sale over the Internet for April 2022 recorded a growth of 24.9% y-o-y (March 2022: 17%). For the seasonally adjusted value index, it grew 11.6% from the previous month,” he said. — Bernama