Thursday 28 Mar 2024
By
main news image

KUALA LUMPUR (Mar 14): AmBank Group Research expects the Malaysian economy to perform robustly in 2018 supported by the manufacturing sector with the return of expansion in new orders, lower stocks alongside rising employment and a buoyant sentiment added with strong exports fuelled by electrical & electronics and commodities including oil palm goods and liquiefied natural gas.

In a report today, AmBank Group chief economist and head of research Dr Anthony Dass said January’s Industrial Production (IP) rose 3.0% year-on-year (y/y) supported by the mining sector, which rebounded to 1.5% y/y for the first time in four months due to higher crude petroleum and natural gas output in line with the firmer commodity prices.

He said besides that, manufacturing production grew at a credible 4.8% y/y in January underpinned by domestic and export-oriented industries.

As a result, manufacturing sales climbed strongly by 10.8% y/y in January, he said.

“We expect the economy to perform robustly in 2018 supported by the manufacturing sector with the return of expansion in new orders, lower stocks alongside rising employment and a buoyant sentiment added with strong exports fuelled by E&E and commodities including oil palm goods and LNG.

“With the expectations of an improvement in demand condition, we foresee company expansion plans in the pipeline, steady growth from the distributive trade and a healthy Malaysian ringgit (MYR) against the US dollar (USD).

“These key factors will help support the overall business confidence which is seen to be improving,” he said.

Dass said he foresees the 2018 gross domestic product to grow around 5.5% and expects the USD/MYR to remain around 3.88-90 which is his base case and may even trend to a best case of 3.78-80.

“Our fair value of the USD/MYR is 3.76,” he said.

 

      Print
      Text Size
      Share