Malaysia's retail trade sales increased 7.2% year over year to 71.9 billion ringgit in May, according to data from the Department of Statistics Malaysia released on Friday.
The growth pace was faster than the 6.3% expansion recorded in the previous month and beat the Trading Economics forecast of 6% growth.
The sector's performance was driven primarily by retail sales in non-specialized stores, which grew 8.2% to 28 billion ringgit.
Total wholesale and retail trade sales combined reached 171.3 billion ringgit, reflecting a year over year increase of 11%.