Malaysian Industrial Production Growth Improves

(RTTNews) - Malaysia's industrial output expanded at an accelerated pace in November, largely led by strong growth in the manufacturing sector, figures from the Department of Statistics showed on Friday.

Industrial production increased 3.6 percent year-on-year in November, following a 2.0 percent increase in the previous month. Production has been rising since January.

Among sectors, the annual growth in the manufacturing sector accelerated to 4.6 percent from 3.3 percent in October. Similarly, electricity production advanced at a faster pace of 3.9 percent versus a 1.9 percent gain a month ago. On the other hand, the decline in mining output eased to 0.8 percent from 2.8 percent.

On a monthly basis, industrial output rose 0.5 percent compared to last month's 1.7 percent increase.

Separate official data showed that Malaysia's jobless rate remained stable for the third straight month at 3.2 percent in November. There were 546,700 unemployed people compared to 551,400 in October.