Southeast Asia’s major domestic appliances (MDA) sector grew slower during the past 12 months due to weaker performances in Thailand and Indonesia.

According to researcher GfK, over 20.5 billion units of air conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators, and microwave ovens were sold in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia and Laos in the past 12 months, with sales totalling nearly $5.8 billion.

Thailand’s political disruption earlier this year was one of the contributing reasons for stifled MDA sales there.

Indonesia also turned in a lackluster performance due to rising fuel and energy prices and political uncertainty around the recent election.

Performances were strong in Cambodia and Laos – both reporting strong double digit surges in value and volume sales of 11 and 17 per cent, and 59 and 21 per cent respectively over the previous year.

“The markets of Thailand and Vietnam are expected to pick up in the months to come as local conditions start to stabilise and consumer sentiments anticipated to improve consequently,” said Jasmine Lim, account director for home & lifestyle at GfK Asia.

“This will definitely help the overall performance of major domestic appliance sales in Southeast Asia, where better results are expected in the near future,” she said.