Leading Index indicates Malaysian economy to continue recovery in months ahead

PETALING JAYA: The country’s Leading Index (LI) registered 108.5 points in August 2020, from 100.8 points in August 2019, maintaining an annual growth of 7.6%. On a month-on-month basis the LI slipped to -0.5% dragged down by the number of new companies registered (-0.6%), real imports of semiconductors (-0.4%) and number of housing units approved (-0.1%).

Despite the softening of the LI for the reference month, Chief Statistician Malaysia Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the growth rate of smoothed LI is consistently above trend and moving upwards, implying that the Malaysian economy is expected to continue its recovery trend in the months ahead.

“The coincident index (CI) which measures the current economic performance anticipated a better year-on-year growth to register -2.3% from -2.4% in July 2020. On a monthly basis, the CI rose to 0.5% supported by the increase in volume index of retail trade (0.5%) and real salaries & wages in manufacturing sector (0.1%)”, he said.

He added that the current situation was supported by the performance of volume index of wholesale & retail trade which depicted a sign of recovery to register 130 points with a growth of -2.4% year on year. This was the smallest negative growth since March 2020.

In terms of labour force, the number of employed persons improved 0.5% to 15.2 million persons contributed mainly in the services sector.

The wholesale and retail trade sector has shown signs of recovery. – BERNAMAPIX