Retail sales in Malaysia increased by 7.8 percent year-on-year in May 2019, accelerating from an upwardly revised 7.0 percent rise in the prior month. It was the biggest gain in retail trade since February, as sales growth accelerated for automotive fuel (3.5 percent vs 3.3 percent in April); food, beverages and tobacco (9.6 percent vs 8.8 percent); other household equipment (7.7 percent vs 5.8 percent); other goods (9.3 percent vs 7.8 percent); retails sale via stalls and markets (9.9 percent vs 8.2 percent); cultural and recreation goods (8.4 percent vs 7.2 percent), and retail sales in non-specialised stores (9.0 percent vs 8.1 percent). Also, both wholesale trade (5.5 percent vs 5.3 percent) and sales of motor vehicles (9.1 percent vs 2.2 percent) went up faster. On a monthly basis, retail trade jumped 5.3 percent, after a downwardly revised 4.0 percent fall in April. Retail Sales Yoy in Malaysia averaged 9.74 percent from 2013 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 14.80 percent in August of 2018 and a record low of 5.90 percent in July of 2015.
Retail Sales Yoy in Malaysia is expected to be 8.50 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Retail Sales Yoy in Malaysia to stand at 6.00 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Malaysia Retail Sales YoY is projected to trend around 6.90 percent in 2020, according to our econometric models.