In a report released today, chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin said month-on-month (m-o-m) sales value also continued to grow at 2.5% in August, the highest sales since the implementation of the movement control order (MCO).

The sales exceeded the pre-MCO value registered in February, which amounted to RM109 billion.

“All sub-sectors continued to recover, led by motor vehicles which saw y-o-y growth of 1% for two consecutive months,” said Uzir.

“Retail trade was also on the recovery path with growth of -1.5% in August, compared with -3.8% in the previous month. The wholesale trade also improved from -4.5% in July to -3.9% in August.”

On sub-sector performance, Uzir said motor vehicle sales recorded the highest y-o-y growth of 3.1% valued at RM7.9 billion, due mainly to the tax relief announced by the government through Penjana (National Economic Recovery Plan).

It was followed by motorcycle sales, maintenance and repairs, which registered 2.4% growth to RM1 billion, he said.

However, he said sales of motor vehicle parts and accessories contracted 2.6% y-o-y to RM3.1 billion, while the maintenance and repairs of motor vehicles also saw a 2.3% decline to RM1.7 billion.

For the retail trade, Uzir noted that the growth of -1.5% was due to the decline in sales of non-essential products, namely cultural and recreation goods with -9.7%, goods in specialised stores (-7.2%), household goods (-4.2%) and information and communication equipment (-3.8%).

Meanwhile, the sales of essential products recorded positive growth, mainly in retail sales in the non-specialised stores, which registered a y-o-y increase of 4.7% to RM16.7 billion.

He said the online retail sales index, which portrays e-commerce activity, also expanded by 37.4% y-o-y.

In terms of volume index, Uzir said the wholesale and retail trade contracted 2.4% y-o-y, due to a decline in wholesale trade of 3.4%.

“This was followed by retail trade, which contracted 2.3%, while motor vehicles continued to expand by 0.9%,” he said.