Malaysia’s income from e-commerce saw a 23.3% year-on-year (YoY) growth in the second quarter of 2021 (2Q21), said the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) in its latest report on the performance of services sector and e-commerce income.

According to the statement by DOSM, the increase was driven primarily by the manufacturing and services sectors. In total, Malaysia’s income from e-commerce in 2Q21 came up to RM267.6 billion. Additionally, an infographic by DOSM also showed that the country’s e-commerce income saw a 5.1% growth from the first quarter of 2021 (1Q2021), which itself saw a 30% YoY surge.

Aside from revealing the performance of Malaysia’s e-commerce industry, DOSM also shared the revenue of the services sector. In 2Q21, the services sector recorded a significant growth of 20.5% to RM404.6 billion, as compared to the same quarter in 2020. DOSM further attributed the increase to the low base effect.

Aside from that, DOSM also broke down the performance of the services sector by segment. The wholesale and retail trade, F&B and accommodation segment saw a 21.8% increase to RM324.6 billion. Meanwhile, the information and communication, and transportation and storage segment grew by 14.7% to RM59.5 billion.

“Health, education and arts, entertainment and recreation segment and professional and real estate agent segment experienced the same trend, [recording a] 27.3% increase to RM12.2 billion and 8% [increase] to RM8.2 billion respectively,” said the chief statistician of DOSM, Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin.

Additionally, the DOSM report also indicated that the overall services sector saw an engagement of 3.6 million persons in 2Q21 – which was lower by 0.7% (25,812 persons) as compared to the same period in 2020 (2Q20). This decrease was caused by the overall dip in the number of persons engaged across all segments. Of note is the information and communication, and transportation and storage segment, which saw a drop of 11,297 persons (2.4%) in the number of individuals who were engaged. This is followed by a dip of 6,127 persons (0.2%) in the wholesale and retail trade, F&B and accommodation segment.

“Meanwhile, health education and arts, entertainment and recreation segment fell 1.7% or 4,772 persons. Professional and real estate agent also declined 3,616 persons or 2.0%,” Datuk Seri Uzir highlighted in the report.

Finally, Datuk Seri Uzir also noted that the salaries and wages that were paid in the services sector during 2Q21 had increased YoY by 0.4%, which is equivalent to RM100.5 million. “The growth was contributed by the information and communication, and transportation and storage segment, which increased RM120.8 million, or 2.8%. This was followed by wholesale and retail trade, F&B and accommodation segment, and health, education and arts, entertainment, and recreation segment rose RM9.3 million and RM3.0 million respectively,” he said.

(Sources: DOSM, The Edge Markets)

• TAGS:
• Department of Statistics Malaysia
• DOSM
• E-Commerce