Chief Statistician Uzir Mahidin said the growth was driven by the favourable performance of the wholesale and retail trade, food and beverages and accommodation segment, which recorded a 6.4% revenue growth y-o-y compared with 5.9% in Q2 2023.

This segment was the biggest contributor to the services sector’s revenue at RM461.4 billion, followed by the information and communication as well as transportation and storage segment (RM84.3 billion, up 6.1% y-o-y).

Uzir said the professional, real estate, and administrative and support services segments also showed robust revenue growth of 10.2% to RM39.5 billion.

The private healthcare, private education, arts, entertainment and recreation, and other personal services segment saw a notable increase of 12.4% to RM21.8 billion.

Meanwhile, e-commerce income for Q2 2024 recorded a 7.8% growth, its biggest y-o-y growth in five quarters, reaching RM302.4 billion.

Uzir said the number of persons engaged in this sector stood at 4.5 million, an increase of 1.7% y-o-y.

This growth was led by the wholesale and retail trade sub-sector, which saw an increase of 2.3%, followed by the transportation and storage sub-sector at 3.6%.

“Total salaries and wages increased 3.5% y-o-y to register RM32.6 billion, attributed to the wholesale and retail trade, as well as transportation and storage sub-sectors,” he added.