‘Rise in January Leading Index shows positive prospects’

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s nearterm economic prospects remain positive with the Leading Index (LI) increasing to 110 points in January this year from 101.7 points in the same month last year, an annual growth of 8.2 per cent, said the Statistics Department.

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the LI’s increase was supported by the persistent rise in the Bursa Malaysia Industrial Index, which was supported by the Healthcare Index and Transportation and Logistics Index.

“Correspondingly, the LI showed an increase of 0.7 per cent based on a monthly comparison. The growth was mainly contributed by expected sales value in manufacturing sector (0.7 per cent),” he said in a statement on the Leading, Coincident and Lagging Indexes for January.

He noted that the growth rate of smoothed LI stayed above the trend, which indicated that the country’s economic prospects in the near term remained upbeat in line with the inoculation drive.

Meanwhile, the Coincident Index (CI) declined 0.4 per cent to 111 points in January this year from 111.4 points in the previous month, supported by a significant decrease in real contributions to the Employees Provident Fund (-0.5 per cent).

“Similarly, the performance of the CI, which reflects the current state of the economy, slowed to an annual growth of negative 2.2 per cent in January from negative 1.3 per cent in the preceding month.

“The fall in the CI reflects the re-implementation of the Movement Control Order with three stages starting on Jan 13, as a strict measure to break the chain of infection and transmission of Covid-19,” he said.