Malaysia's 6.7% Feb IPI rise surprise, beats forecast

The increase in IPI is due to higher manufacturing and electrical indices.

PETALING JAYA: February’s industrial production index (IPI) rose a surprising 6.7% compared with the same month a year ago, beating economists’ estimate of 6.2% growth, while manufacturing sales gained 16.1% to RM53.5bil versus RM46.1bil previously, the Department of Statistics said.

The increase was due to higher growth in the manufacturing index of 9.8% and electricity index (8.7%). The mining index, however, recorded negative growth of 1.4%.