Retail sales in Malaysia increased by 6.3 percent year-on-year in April 2019, slowing from a 6.9 percent rise in the prior month. It was the smallest gain in retail trade since September 2015, as sales growth slowed for automotive fuel (3.3 percent vs 4.2 percent in March); food, beverages and tobacco (8.8 percent vs 9.4 percent), retail sales in non-specialised stores (7.0 percent vs 7.9 percent), other household equipment (5.0 percent vs 5.6 percent), other goods (6.6 percent vs 7.5 percent), retails sale via stalls and markets (8.2 percent vs 9.8 percent), and cultural and recreation goods (7.2 percent vs 8.1 percent). Meantime, wholesale trade went up further (5.3 percent vs 5.0 percent) while sales of motor vehicles eased (2.2 percent vs 2.6 percent). On a monthly basis, retail trade fell 4.7 percent, after a 2.6 percent rise in March. Retail Sales Yoy in Malaysia averaged 9.82 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 8.20 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 6.50 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.