Chief Statistician Uzir Mahidin said the increase was attributed to the retail trade sub-sector, which recorded an increase of RM10.6 billion or 21.7% y-o-y to RM59.6 billion.
He said motor vehicles also expanded by 20.1% y-o-y or RM2.5 billion to RM15.2 billion while wholesale trade went up 3.1% y-o-y or RM1.8 billion to RM60.4 billion.
“However, for month-on-month (m-o-m) comparison, sales value of wholesale and retail trade declined 1.6%, mainly contributed by the motor vehicles sub-sector which decreased 13.4%,” he said in a statement today.
Uzir said the retail trade sub-sector growth of 21.7% in January was supported by retail sales in non-specialised stores which grew 24.6% or RM4.5 billion to RM22.7 billion.
“For m-o-m comparison, sales of this sub-sector went up 0.2%,” he said.
He said the 20.1% y-o-y growth in the motor vehicles sub-sector was attributed to sales of motor vehicles, which increased 25% or RM1.5 billion to RM7.7 billion.
“However, on a monthly basis, sales of this sub-sector decreased 13.4% influenced by sales of motor vehicles, which declined 23.4%,” he said.
He said for the wholesale trade sub-sector, the increase of 3.1% was attributed to the wholesale of household goods, which registered an increase of RM1 billion or 8.6% to RM12.8 billion.
Uzir said for monthly comparison, wholesale trade grew 0.1%, which mainly contributed to the wholesale of household goods, which increased 4.4% or RM0.5 billion to RM12.8 billion.
Additionally, he said the index of retail sale over the internet for January recorded 9.6% growth y-o-y versus 10.2% y-o-y growth in December 2022.
“For seasonally adjusted value, the index rose 1.3% as against the previous month,” he said.
He said in terms of volume index, wholesale and retail trade for January registered a y-o-y growth of 8.6% attributed to retail trade, which increased 16.2%.
“Similarly, motor vehicles and wholesale trade also recorded positive growth of 10.8% and 0.3%, respectively. However, the seasonally adjusted volume index went down 4.4% m-o-m,” he added.