KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 23): AmBank Group Research said the leading indicator (LI) continued to point to a favourable outlook for the Malaysian economy.

In a note today, AmBank chief economist and head of research Dr Anthony Dass said in August, it rose at the same pace as July by 7.6% year-on-year (y-o-y).

He said LI has been on the uptrend for four months in a row.

Likewise, Dass said the coincident indicator (CI) that measures current economic environment registered a smaller decline of 2.3% y-o-y in August from -2.4% y-o-y in July.

“Based on July and August’s data, preliminary estimation showed the domestic economy should rebound in 3Q2020 following a 17.1% y-o-y contraction in 2Q gross domestic product (GDP), the worst since the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

“Preliminary estimation suggested that 3Q GDP should contract by a smaller 2% to 3% on an annual basis,” he said.