KUALA LUMPUR (March 13): Malaysia’s industrial production index (IPI) rose 0.6% year-on-year (y-o-y) in January 2020, helped by higher manufacturing output as mining and electricity production declined.

In a statement today, the Statistics Department said the IPI’s manufacturing component increased 2.1% while the mining and electricity segments declined 3.9% and 0.01% respectively.

The department said, "On year-on-year basis, the manufacturing sector output rose by 2.1% in January 2020 after recording a growth of 3.4% in December 2019. The major sub-sectors contributing to the increase in January 2020 were on-metallic mineral products, basic metal and fabricated metal products (3.9%), petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products (3.6%) and electrical and electronics products (3.2%).

"The mining sector output dropped 3.9% in January 2020 as compared to the same period of the previous year. The decline was due to the decrease in both indices under mining sector which were crude oil and condensate index (-5.9%) and natural gas index (-2.3%).”