In a statement, Chief Statistician Uzir Mahidin said the increase was driven by the retail trade sub-sector, which rose 8.7% or RM5.1 billion to register RM64 billion.

He said wholesale trade also grew by 4.7% or RM2.9 billion to RM65.1 billion, followed by motor vehicles with an increase of 10.5% or RM1.8 billion to settle at RM18.8 billion.

“For monthly comparison, wholesale and retail trade went up 2% from the previous month, supported by motor vehicles and wholesale trade with 8.8% and 2% respectively,” he added.

Uzir said the index of retail sales over the internet expanded by 5.2% y-o-y in May 2024 compared to 4.3% in April 2024, while for seasonally adjusted value, the index slipped 4.7% against the previous month.

Meanwhile, in terms of volume index, Uzir noted that wholesale and retail trade for May 2024 registered a y-o-y growth of 5.7%.

“The expansion was attributed to all sub-sectors namely motor vehicles (9.6%), retail trade (6.8%) and wholesale trade (3.4%).

“Conversely, for the seasonally adjusted volume index, it went down 0.9% month-on-month,” he added.