Indicators point to slower economic growth ahead

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian economy is expected to grow at a slower pace in the coming months, according to the Statistics Department’s analysis.
“The annual growth of the Coincident Index (CI) showed an improvement in November 2016 as compared with the previous month. However, the annual change in the Leading Index (LI) remained negative in October,” the analysis stated.

Concurrently, the Diffusion Index for CI reached 100.0% while Diffusion Index for LI was 42.9%, it added.
The CI, which measures economic activity, registered a growth of 0.4% in November, as a result of being driven by almost all of the CI components particularly by the Volume Index of Retail Trade, which rose by 0.2%.
However, Malaysia’s LI registered a decrease of 0.3% in November 2016 compared with the previous month, declining from 116.8 points in October to 116.4 points in November. Year-on-year, it was down by 1.4%.
This was attributable to the slump in Bursa Malaysia’s Industrial Index and the approved number of housing units, which caused the LI to fall.
The Bursa Malaysia Industrial Index fell by 0.3% and the number of housing units approved declined by 0.5% from October.
The LI monitors economic performance through a series of indicators such as real money supply, Bursa Malaysia Industrial Index, real imports of semiconductors, real import of other basic precious and other non-ferrous metals, number of housing units approved, expected sales value manufacturing and number of new companies registered.