Rabu, 7 Februari 2018

Mydin kata rakyat tak ada duit

*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*
*PRESS STATEMENT*

7 FEBRUARY 2018

1. I refer to a news report by several media outlets with regards to the comments made by the Managing Director of Mydin retail chain that despite Malaysia's strong economic growth, Malaysians don't have money to spend.

2. According to him, this is evidenced by continued contraction of hypermarket sales.

3. Based on data provided by Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), share of hypermarket sales to retail sales is only 8%.

4. With that, hypermarket sales cannot be viewed as the only benchmark of retail sales performance and to a large extent, economic condition of Malaysia and the people.

5. Even so, retail trade in Malaysia has been recording a strong growth both in term of value and volume. In term of value, retail trade registered double digit growth for three consecutive quarters in 2017 and in term of volume, retail trade grew by 7.8%, 11.5% and 10.4% in the first, second and third quarter of 2017 respectively.

6. Retail trade in the first 11 months of 2017 increased to RM410.5 billion from RM367.7 billion in the same period for 2016, a growth of 11.6%.

7. The number of non-specialized stores which include hypermarkets, increased from 66,920 establishments (2016) to 73,848 establishments (2017).  This alone could be one of the reasons why some hypermarkets are facing slowing sales as consumers have more choices to shop.

8. Based on Economic Census 2016 published by DOSM, e-Commerce transactions of business-to-consumer (B2C), valued at RM73.7 billion and expanding every year. More and more people are buying products including basic groceries at the convenience of their own home as shopping is made easier and convenient for them through internet.

9. Some of the hypermarkets in Malaysia have already started to offer online grocery shopping and delivery to their customers. Those which have not ventured into the "trend" yet will lose out on the potential gains that come from thriving online shopping scene.

10. Other figures indicate that Malaysians in general have more money to spend.

11. For example, domestic tourists' expenditure grew by 10.2 % in 2016 to register RM74.8 billion compared to RM67.7 billion in 2015. Shopping continued to be the biggest component of domestic tourists' expenditure with its share of 35.3%.

12. Malaysian tourists spent RM33.5 billion abroad in 2016, an increase from RM31.1 billion in 2015 despite depreciating Ringgit during the said period.

13. All these figures are in tandem with rising median monthly household income of 6.2% per annum from RM4,585 in 2014 to RM5,228 in 2016 and soaring average monthly household expenditure of 5.9% per annum from RM3,578 in 2014 to RM4,033 in 2016 reported in the Household Income and Expenditure Surveys by DOSM.

14. Malaysia's strong economic growth has clearly benefited the people in term of rising income and purchasing power which in turn boost private consumption.

15. Private consumption continued to be the biggest contributor to Malaysia's economy with its share of contribution to the national GDP amounting to 53.2% or RM589.7 billion. 

16. Economic performance and condition of a country and its people cannot be measured by just one sub-sector such as hypermarket industry alone.

17. While GDP has its own limitations and may not be the perfect indicator of welfare and wellbeing of the people, it does seem to correlate pretty well with broader qualitative measures of prosperity. As GDP grows, more jobs are created, household income increased and people have more money to spend.

Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan
Minister in Prime Minister's Department
Economic Planning Unit

-Ends-