Malaysia's IPI Down 4.9 Percent In March

KUALA LUMPUR, May 12 (Bernama) -- Malaysia’s Industrial Production Index (IPI) dropped 4.9 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) in March 2020, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM) said. In a statement Tuesday, the DoSM attributed the decline to the decrease in manufacturing (-4.2 per cent), mining (-6.5 per cent) and electricity (-7.0 per cent) indices. It added that the manufacturing sector’s output dropped 4.2 per cent in March 2020 after recording an increase of 6.2 per cent in February 2020. The major sub-sectors which contributed to the decline in the manufacturing sectors’s performance were electrical and electronics products (-5.0 per cent), non-metallic mineral products, basic metal and fabricated metal products (-9.8 per cent) and food, beverages and tobacco (-9.9 per cent). DoSM added that the mining sector’s output dropped 6.5 per cent y-o-y in March 2020 due to the negative growth in Natural Gas index (-6.0 per cent) and Crude Oil and Condensate index (-7.1 per cent). Meanwhile, for the first quarter of 2020, the IPI recorded a growth of 0.4 per cent y-o-y following a 1.3 per cent increase in the manufacturing index, although the electricity and mining indices recorded a reduction of 0.4 per cent y-o-y and 1.8 per cent y-o-y, respectively. -- BERNAMA