Msian economy to grow at slower pace in months ahead

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian economy is expected to continue expanding, although at a slower rate in the coming months. 

The Leading Index (LI), which monitors the economic performance in advance registered a growth of 1.3% in September 2015 to 118.5 points from 117.0 points in August 2015. 

Meanwhile, the Coincident Index (CI) which measures the current economic activity, rose 0.7% in September 2015. 

Although both the annual change of LI and CI improved in September compared with August, both Diffusion Indexes remained below 50%. 

According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia, based on the persistent fluctuation shows in LI and CI, this implies that the Malaysian economy will continue to expand albeit at slower rate in the months ahead.

The increase in the LI was underpinned by number of housing units approved (0.8%), real imports of semi conductors (0.4%), real money supply, M1 and Bursa Malaysia Industrial Index which registered 0.2%, respectively. 

The annual change of LI remained negative in the reference month but it showed an improvement as compared to the previous month.

The three components of the CI that recorded an increase in September were Volume Index of retail trade (0.5%), Industrial Production Index (0.3%) and total employment in manufacturing sector (0.2%). 

The annual change of CI accelerated to 1.3% in September 2015 as against 0.7% in the preceding month.