PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian economy is expected to keep growing in June to August 2019 albeit at a slower pace, according to the Malaysian Economic Indicators: Leading, Coincident & Lagging Indices for the reference month of February 2019.
“The monthly growth rate of Leading Index (LI) decreased 2.2% to 116.3 points in February 2019 against 118.9 points in January 2019,” said the Department of Statistics.
Two components that posted the highest percentage decrease were real imports of semi conductors (-0.9%) and number of housing units approved (-0.6%).
The LI also showed a slower momentum of year-on-year change in February 2019. The LI is able to point out the direction of economy for an average of four to six months ahead.
The Coincident Index (CI), which indicates the current economic performance, decreased 0.9% in the reference month. Capacity utilisation in manufacturing sector (-0.7%) was the component that led to the significant decrease. However, the annual change of CI rose 2.9% in February 2019.
