Expanding retail market spurred by rising purchasing power
The retail sector is a major catalyst for economic development in Malaysia and has shown firm GDP growth over the past few years. This is thanks in part to strong purchasing power, supported by an expanding middle class and rising household income. As shown in the chart below, retail sales have grown at a high single-digit rate for each of the past two years.
Malaysia’s middle-income households (those with annual disposable incomes of more than US$10,000) account for about three-quarters of the country’s population, up about 15 percentage points from 2009. This is more than that of Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines or Indonesia, but falls behind Singapore.