Mydin: Malaysians are poorer despite strong economic growth

Managing Director of Mydin: How can a country grow when the hypermarket growth is negative?

Datuk Ameer Ali Mydin, Managing Director of Mydin has stated in an interview with radio station BFM that Malaysia is experiencing strong gross domestic product growth but people just don’t have enough money to spend on groceries.
Ameer pointed out that this could be seen in declining hypermarket sales across the country throughout 2017.
Despite the ringgit strengthening to the US dollar, hypermarkets and supermarkets, which control 50 percent of the grocery market are experiencing negative growth
“That makes you wonder, how can a country grow but hypermarkets growth, which is the real basic consumption in the country, is negative,” said Ameer.
In the first quarter of 2017, Malaysia’s GDP grew by 5.6% but retail sales dropped by 1.2% while hypermarket sales went down by 4.8%.He said, “I am not saying there’s no growth, of course, the numbers are there. But in a normal country, growth will reflect on domestic consumption (basic goods).”
However, the Special Affairs Department (Jasa) strategic communications director Tun Faisal Ismail Aziz said it was not right to draw an inference that reduced spending power was directly correlated with spending at hypermarkets.
Faisal stated that a country’s GDP growth was not determined by hypermarkets alone, pointing out that other industries are experiencing growth, such as agriculture, mining, manufacturing, construction, services, utilities and F&B.
According to data from Mydin stores, the prices of 150 goods have increased by more than 14% on average in the last five years
MARKETING has reached out to Mydin and are awaiting responses. Meanwhile, Giant hypermarket has declined to comment on this issue.