Malaysia's industrial output in May exceeds forecast

Manufacturing sector output increased by 4.4% in December 2018 after expanding by 3.7% in November 2018.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's industrial production index in May rose 4% on-yearwhich was above the Bloomberg survey of 3.5%, underpinned by electricity, manufacturing and mining.

The Statistics Department said on Friday the growth was driven by the increase in all indices: electricity (5.7%), manufacturing (4.2%) and Mining (3.0%).

“The manufacturing sector output rose by 4.2% in May 2019 as compared to May 2018 after recording a growth of 4.3% in April 2019,” it said. 

The department said major sub-sectors contributing to the increase in May 2019 were transport equipment and other manufactures products (6.9%), electrical and electronics products (3.7%) and petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products (3.2%).

It said the output of mining sector increased by 3% from a year ago, which is the highest growth since September 2017. 

It pointed out the growth was contributed by the natural gas index expanded by 7.6% while the crude oil index fell by 2%.

As for the electricity sector, its output increased by 5.7% in May 2019 from a year ago.