Malaysia’s economy likely to slow in April to June 2019

Malaysia’s economy is likely to grow at a slow rate in April to June 2019 in view of the decline in the Leading Index (LI) in December 2018, according to the Statistics Department. Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the monthly change of LI decreased 1.4% to 117.3 points in December 2018 from 119.0 points in the previous month.

“The declined in six out of seven components have weighed down the performance of the LI with the significant decreased by two components namely real imports of other basic precious & other non-ferrous metals and number of housing units approved, which posted negative 0.5% respectively,” he said in a statement.

The annual change of LI also registered a negative growth of 1.7% in December 2018.

The LI is designed to monitor the economic performance for an average of four to six months ahead.

Meanwhile, the Coincident Index (CI), a measure of current economic activity, was unchanged in December 2018.

The increased in real salaries & wages in manufacturing sector (0.2%) and real contributions to EPF (0.1%) were offset by the decreased in capacity utilisation in manufacturing sector (-0.2%) and Industrial Production Index (-0.1%).

The annual change of CI grew at 3.6% as in the previous month.