Malaysia’s Economic Growth Momentum To Continue, Leading Index Up 0.3 Pct In March

KUALA LUMPUR, May 25 (Bernama) – Malaysia’s economic growth momentum is expected to continue in the third quarter of 2018, with the annual change of Leading Index (LI) increasing 0.3 per cent, year-on-year, in March 2018, said the Department of Statistics Malaysia. However, the monthly change of LI, which monitored economic performance in advance, showed a negative growth of 0.5 per cent in the same month, mainly due to the 0.7 per cent decrease in the number of housing units approved. The department, in a statement on "Malaysian Economic Indicators: Leading, Coincident & Lagging Indexes March 2018," said the Coincident Index (CI), which examined current economic activity, rose 0.6 per cent in March 2018. It was driven by the increase in real contribution to the Employee’ Provident Fund (0.4 per cent), volume index of retail trade (0.3 per cent), total employment in the manufacturing sector (0.2 per cent) and real salaries and wages in the manufacturing sector (0.1 per cent). “The annual change of CI stepped up to 3.4 per cent compared with 3.1 per cent in February 2018 and the Diffusion Index for CI remained at 66.7 per cent since January 2018,” it added. Meanwhile, the Diffusion Index for LI was below 50.0 per cent for two consecutive months. -- BERNAMA