KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 8 — Malaysia’s services sector saw its total revenue increase to RM2.3 trillion in 2023, an 8.4 per cent rise compared to 2022’s RM2.1 trillion, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) reported.

Chief statistician Malaysia Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the performance improvement was spurred by the wholesale and retail trade sub-sector, which improved by 7.7 per cent or RM119.1 billion, and the transportation and storage; and information and communication sub-sectors, which improved by 15.8 per cent (RM20.4 billion) and 5.3 per cent (RM8.6 billion), respectively compared to 2022.

"However, there are sub-sectors that have not yet surpassed the pre-pandemic (2019) revenue value, namely food and beverage (-1.4 per cent); arts, entertainment and recreation (-24.4 per cent); and personal services and other activities (-23.9 per cent).

"This was due to the several activities related to the tourism industry still in the recovery phase after the opening of international borders starting April 1, 2022, and has not yet surpassed pre-pandemic levels,” he said in a statement today.

In terms of e-commerce income, the chief statistician said the overall value of e-commerce income grew 4.9 per cent compared to last year, recording a value of RM1.2 trillion.

"It recorded RM291.9 billion, growing 1.7 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) in the fourth quarter of 2023.

"For quarter-on-quarter comparison, the income of e-commerce increased marginally by 0.8 per cent in 2023,” he said.

Meanwhile, in a separate statement, DOSM said that the volume index of services grew 4.1 per cent y-o-y to record 148.5 points in the fourth quarter of 2023.

"Bringing the annual performance for 2023 to an increase of 5.6 per cent compared to 2022. Meanwhile, for quarter-on-quarter comparison, this index went up 0.6 per cent.

"The performance of the volume index of services for this quarter was driven by the increase in the wholesale and retail trade, food and beverages and accommodation segment which grew 4.2 per cent compared to last year,” it said.

DOSM said that this was followed by the information and communication, and transportation and storage segment (6.6 per cent); other services segment (7.0 per cent); and business services and finance segment (1.0 per cent). — Bernama