Malaysian economy to continue to grow in Q3

Malaysia’s economy is poised to continue to grow in the third quarter of the year, according to the Department of Statistics.

The Leading Index (LI), which monitors the economic performance in average of four to six months ahead, saw an annual change of 0.3% against 1.8 % in the previous month.

On a monthly basis, the LI contracted 0.5%, mainly attributable to the deceleration in the number of housing units approved by 0.7%.

Meanwhile, the Coincident Index (CI), which examines the current economic activity, rose 0.6 % in March 2018 on the back of the increase in real contribution to EPF (0.4%), volume index of retail trade (0.3%), total employment in manufacturing sector (0.2%) and real salaries & wages in manufacturing sector (0.1%).

The annual change of CI stepped up to 3.4% in the reference month as compared with 3.1% in February 2018.

Meanwhile, the Diffusion Index for CI remained at 66.7% since January 2018, while the Diffusion Index for LI was below 50% for two consecutive months.