Malaysia Industrial Output Growth Improves In May

(RTTNews) - Malaysia's industrial production growth accelerated less than expected in May, figures from the Department of Statistics showed on Thursday.

Industrial output climbed 8.4 percent year-on-year in May, faster than the 8.2 percent rise in April. The expected increase was 9.5 percent. Moreover, this was the strongest expansion since September 2022.

Among sectors, the annual expansion in mining quickened notably to 19.8 percent from 6.8 percent in April, mainly driven by the acceleration in natural gas output by 37.4 percent.

On the other hand, manufacturing growth eased to 6.6 percent from 8.3 percent, and electricity production grew at a slower pace of 4.2 percent versus 10.5 percent a month ago.

On a monthly basis, industrial production rebounded 1.3 percent in May after falling 3.4 percent in the prior month.