KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s Industrial Production Index (IPI) increased 4.6% in April 2022 as compared to the same month of the previous year, according to the Statistics Department (DOSM).
However, the growth came in below expectations. A Reuters poll showed economists expect a growth of 5.6%.
“The expansion of IPI was contributed by the manufacturing and electricity sectors, which recorded increases of 6.2% and 1.5% respectively. The mining sector shrank 0.1%,” chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr. Mohd Uzir Mahidin said in a statement.
On a month-on-month basis, the IPI deteriorated by 4.8% as a result of the fall in all components of indices.
DOSM said the manufacturing sector output based on year-on-year comparison increased by 6.2% in April 2022 after recording a growth of 6.9% in March 2022.
The main subsectors that contributed to the growth in the manufacturing sector in April 2022 were electrical & electronics products (14.2%), wood products, furniture, paper products & printing (10.1%) and non-metallic mineral products, basic metal & fabricated metal products (5.1%).
Simultaneously, the growth of the manufacturing sector was driven by both domestic-oriented industry (6.9%) and export-oriented industry (5.8%).
It said the growth of the domestic-oriented industry was attributed to the manufacture of food processing products and the manufacture of other non-metallic mineral products.
Meanwhile, the increase in export-oriented industries was mainly supported by the manufacture of computers, electronics & optical products and manufacture of chemicals & chemical products.
For a month-on-month comparison, the manufacturing sector contracted 4.9% as compared to March 2022 affected by the lower capacity utilisation.
The mining sector output declined 0.1% in April 2022 as compared to the same period of the previous year, due to the fall of 0.8% in the crude oil & condensate index.
DOSM said the natural gas index grew 0.3% while the mining index registered a decrease of 5.3% as compared to the previous month.
The electricity sector output rose 1.5% in April 2022 as compared to the same month of the previous year. In terms of month-on-month comparison, the electricity index fell 2.2%.
“The IPI in the period of January to April 2022 recorded an expansion of 4.5% as compared to the same period of the previous year,” DOSM said, adding that the growth was supported by the manufacturing index (6.3%) and electricity index (3.1%). The mining index shrank 1.4%.
