Leading Index up 1.6% in December, economy seen expanding in first half

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian economy is expected to continue to grow in view of the favourable Leading Index (LI) and Coincident Index (CI) in December 2017 albeit slower momentum, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia.
"Supported by the level of both Diffusion Indexes sustaining above 50.0%, it is expected that the economic growth will continue throughout the first half of 2018," it said in a statement today. 
The LI, which monitors the economic performance in advance, increased 1.6% year-on-year in December 2017. However, the monthly change of LI registered a decrease of 1.8% in the reference month.
The main components that caused the decrease were real imports of semi conductors (-0.8%) and number of housing units approved (-0.6%).
Meanwhile, the department said the CI, which measures the current economic activity, declined slightly by 0.2% in December 2017. 
The Industrial Production Index (-0.2%) were among the components that accounted to this decrease.
Nevertheless, it said the annual change of CI registered a growth of 3.2% in the reference month.