Malaysia's wholesale and retail trade recorded monthly sales value of 138 billion ringgit (29.68 billion U.S. dollars) in May, up 6.6 percent year-on-year, official data showed Wednesday.

The Department of Statistics of Malaysia (DOSM) said in a statement that the growth was attributed to the motor vehicles sub-sector, which surged 22 percent to 17 billion ringgit.

Meanwhile, retail trade expanded 5 percent to 58.8 billion ringgit and wholesale trade increased 4.4 percent to 62.2 billion ringgit.

For month-on-month comparison, sales value of wholesale and retail trade rebounded 1.5 percent, driven by the growth in motor vehicles and wholesale trade sub-sectors. (1 ringgit equals 0.22 U.S. dollar)