KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 11): Malaysia’s wholesale and retail trade fell 10.3% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM92.2 billion in June, dragged by the motor vehicles sub-sector.

On a month-on-month basis, the sales value decreased 14.8% from May, said the Department of Statistics Malaysia in a statement.

Comparatively, the country’s wholesale and retail trade in June 2020 recorded a y-o-y growth of 21.8%.

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the June growth was the lowest so far this year, as Malaysia went into total lockdown amid worsening Covid-19 cases.

"The motor vehicles sub-sector suffered the most, plunging 92.4% or RM11.2 billion to register only RM0.9 billion worth of sales. Subsequently, retail trade dropped 2.9% or RM1.2 billion to RM40.6 billion. On the other hand, wholesale trade grew 3.6% or RM1.8 billion to reach RM50.7 billion," he said.

Mohd Uzir said the abysmal performance in the motor vehicles sub-sector was due to a 94.8% or RM6.4 billion fall in the sale of motor vehicles to RM0.3 billion.

This was followed by the sale of motor vehicles parts & accessories which dropped 88.2% to RM0.3 billion. Similarly, maintenance & repair of motor vehicles decreased 89.6% to RM0.2 billion followed by sale, maintenance & repair of motorcycles which fell 92.3% to RM0.1 billion, he said.

"For month-on-month comparison, sales of this sub-sector also registered a significant drop of 92%," he added.

On the retail trade sub-sector, Mohd Uzir said the contraction of 2.9% was attributed to retail sale in non-specialised stores which declined 7.2% or RM1.1 billion to RM14.8 billion, the first negative growth this year despite being allowed to operate during the lockdown period.

Likewise, retail sale of automotive fuels also tumbled 21.6% to record RM2.5 billion. This was followed by retail sale in specialised stores and retail sale of food, beverages & tobacco which decreased 0.6% and 0.5%, respectively.

"As for monthly comparison, the retail trade sub-sector went down 6.4% with all groups in this sub-sector registering negative growth," noted Mohd Uzir.

Meanwhile, the index of retail sale of any kind of product over the internet, which portrays e-commerce activity, recorded 8.7% growth y-o-y, compared with a growth of 15.8% in May.