Malaysia's eCommerce income surpasses RM1 trillion

Amid the Covid-19-induced weak economic conditions, eCommerce income surged to RM1.09 trillion in 2021 compared with RM896.39bil in 2020, according to the Statistics Department. The growth was driven mainly by the manufacturing and services sectors.

For the fourth quarter of 2021 (Q4’21), Malaysia’s eCommerce income improved by 18.3% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM290.3bil.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the country’s income from eCommerce rose 4%.

eCommerce is part of Malaysia’s services sector, which also improved in revenue last year after a contraction in 2020.

According to the Statistics Department, the annual revenue of the services sector in 2021 was recorded at RM1.68 trillion, although this continued to be below the 2019 level of RM1.78 trillion.

For Q4’21, Malaysia’s services sector recorded a revenue of RM460bil, growing 5.3% y-o-y. The increase in the services sector was driven by the wholesale and retail trade, food and beverages and accommodation segment, which increased 5.1% to RM370.1bil.

This was followed by the transportation and storage as well as the private health, private education and arts, entertainment and recreation segments, whose revenue went up by 8.2% and 6.5% to RM67bil and RM14.3bil, respectively.

Comparing the performance of the subsectors, chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the wholesale and retail trade sub-sector recorded the highest growth of 5.1% y-o-y with a revenue of RM17.1bil.

“Services sector revenue for Q4 ‘21 which recorded RM460bil exceeded the revenue registered in Q4 ‘19 (pre-pandemic Covid-19) by 0.2% (Q4 ‘19: RM459.2bil).

“The sub-sectors that have surpassed the pre-pandemic performance were wholesale and retail trade with 4.6%, information and communication 9.8%, and private health 10.6%,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mohd Uzir pointed out that the number of persons engaged in the services sector was 3.7 million, which grew by 52,077 persons or 1.4% y-o-y.

The rise was attributed by the wholesale and retail trade sub-sector with an increase of 50,575 persons, or 2.7%, followed by the transportation and storage sub-sectors, which rose by 13,507 persons or 4.2%.

The number of persons engaged also increased 1.9% quarter-on-quarter, which amounted to 71,021 persons as compared to the previous quarter.

“Salaries and wages paid also registered an increase of RM303.7mil, or 1.2% y-o-y.

“The increase was attributed by the wholesale and retail trade sub-sector, which rose 3.6% to record RM13.3bil and was accompanied by the transportation and storage sub-sector, which increased 2.3% to record RM2.6bil.

“Meanwhile, for quarter-on-quarter comparison, salaries and wages grew 3.8% to register RM25bil in Q4 ‘21,” Mohd Uzir added.