KUALA LUMPUR (June 11): Malaysia’s Industrial Production Index (IPI) jumped by 50.1% year-on-year (y-o-y) in April on the back of strong manufacturing.
In a statement today, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM)’s chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the sharp increase in April was driven by increases among all indices.
The manufacturing index increased by 68% y-o-y, the electricity index was up 22.9%, and the mining index was up 14.3%.
“The sharp increment of growth in April 2021 was also a reflection of recovery due to the base effect from the implementation of the MCO (movement control order) 1.0 last year,” he added.
Breaking this down further, the DOSM explained that the higher manufacturing sector output was driven by growth in the transport equipment and other manufactures (275.2%), non-metallic mineral products, basic metal and fabricated metal products (141%), and electrical and electronics (E&E) products (70.1%).
It noted that the export-oriented industries saw an increase of 52.8%, while that of the domestic-oriented industries increased by 110.9%.
In contrast, the manufacturing index grew 12.7% in March.
What also drove the higher growth in April were high capacity utilisation rates, especially of E&E products, and the petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic product sub-sectors.
In addition, the performance of the manufacturing sector was also in line with notable growth in exports and the IPI of some of the main trading partners of Malaysia.
The mining sector grew positively for the first time since February 2020, posting a y-o-y growth of 14.3%, following increases in the natural gas index (23.9%) and the crude oil and condensate index (2.7%).
Meanwhile, the electricity sector’s output increased by 22.9% in April, compared to the corresponding month last year.