News Room - Business/Economics

Malaysia’s industrial production index (IPI) rose at a faster pace of 6.1% in July from a year ago, which exceeded economists’ survey of a 5% growth, underpinned by the manufacturing sector.

The Statistics Department said on Thursday the expansion in July was supported by positive growth in manufacturing (4.2%) and mining (14.0%). However, the electricity index declined by 1.2%. 

“The IPI in June 2015 remained unchanged at 4.3% year-on-year. In seasonally adjusted terms, the IPI in July 2015 recorded a marginal decrease of 0.1% month-on-month,” it said.

The department said the marginal decline in the month-on-month IPI was due to the decrease in manufacturing index (2.4%). 

The indices for mining and electricity increased by 2.3% and 0.7% respectively. Year-on-year, manufacturing sector output grew moderately at 4.2% in July 2015 after an increase of 4.9% in June 2015. 

The major sub-sectors which increased in July 2015 were electrical and electronics products (7.2%); petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products (3.3%) and transport equipment and other manufactures (8.8%). 

The department said on a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, manufacturing output declined by 2.4% in July 2015. 

The mining sector output recorded substantial growth of 14.0% in July 2015 as compared to the same month in 2014. 

It attributed the increased due to the crude oil index (7.5%) and natural gas index (22.3%). As against June 2015, seasonally adjusted output for the Mining sector edged up by 2.3%.

The electricity sector output fell 1.2% in July 2015 on yearly basis. In seasonally adjusted terms, electricity sector output grew marginally by 0.7% in July 2015 as compared to the previous month.

For the seven months to July 2015, the IPI grew 5.5% from the previous corresponding period. The increase was due to the rise in manufacturing (4.7%); mining (8.3%) and electricity (1.7%).