In a statement, Chief Statistician Uzir Mahidin said the increase was driven by a 5.5% rise, or RM3.3 billion, in the retail trade sub-sector to RM63.8 billion.

“Wholesale trade also grew by 4.8% or RM2.9 billion to RM63.8 billion, followed by motor vehicles with an increase of 18.1% or RM2.6 billion to RM17.3 billion,” he said.

For monthly comparison, wholesale and retail trade fell 0.6% from the previous month due to the decrease in motor vehicles and wholesale trade which declined 8.2% and 0.4%, respectively.

On the performance of the sub-sectors, he said the 5.5% y-o-y growth in April’s retail trade was contributed by non-specialised store sales which grew 5.2% or RM1.2 billion to RM24.7 billion.

“On a month-on-month (m-o-m) comparison, sales of this sub-sector rose 1.5%,” said Uzir.

He also noted that an increase of 4.8% y-o-y in the wholesale trade sub-sector in April was supported by other specialised wholesale which rose RM1 billion or 4.2% to RM23.9 billion.

Conversely, for monthly comparison, wholesale trade went down 0.4%.

“The y-o-y growth of 18.1% for the motor vehicles sub-sector in April was fuelled by motor vehicles sales which surged 26.5% or RM1.8 billion to record RM8.6 billion.

“This was followed by motor vehicle parts and accessories sales (11.8%) and maintenance and repair of motor vehicles (13.1%),” Uzir said.

He added that for monthly comparison, the sub-sector contracted 8.2%, dragged down by motor vehicle sales which declined 13.4%, and sales, maintenance and repair of motorcycles fell 21.2%.

In terms of volume index, April’s wholesale and retail trade registered a y-o-y growth of 4.5%, attributed to all sub-sectors, namely motor vehicles (17.1%), retail trade (3.5%), and wholesale trade (2.7%).

The seasonally adjusted volume index rebounded 5.5% m-o-m.