KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s industrial output, as measured by the industrial production index (IPI), rose 6.9% in March 2015 from a year earlier on higher manufacturing, mining and electricity output.

In February, the IPI rose 5.2% from a year earlier.

In a statement yesterday, the Statistics Department said manufacturing and mining output increased 6.3% and 9.2% respectively, while electricity production climbed 3.8%.

“The mining sector output registered strong growth of 9.2% in March 2015 compared with the same month in 2014. This growth was contributed by the increase of crude oil index by 20.3%. The natural gas index, however, declined by 2.4%,” the department said.

In monthly terms, March IPI rose 0.6%. Overall IPI growth in the first quarter of 2015 was 6.4%, higher than the 4.6% recorded in the first quarter of 2014. The March year-on-year 6.9% IPI growth had beaten market forecast, based on a Reuters survey. 

Meanwhile, the Statistics Department said sales value of the manufacturing sector in March 2015 increased by 4.4% to a record RM58.4 billion from RM55.9 billion a year ago, contributed by 76 of 138 industries surveyed.

On a month-on-month basis, the sales value was up by 12.1% compared with February.

During the January to March 2015 period, the sales value of the manufacturing sector rose by 1.6% to register RM167.7 billion. The number of employees engaged during the period increased by 0.4% to register 1,029,352 persons.

Cumulatively, productivity has increased by 1.2% to a record RM162,888.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on May 12, 2015.