Leading index up 0.9 pct in May

KUALA LUMPUR: The Leading Index (LI), which monitors Malaysia's economic performance in advance, rose 0.9 per cent in May 2016 to 116.4 points from 115.4 points in April 2016.

This was driven by the increase in Real Money Supply, M1 by 0.5 per cent, real imports of other basic precious and other non-ferrous metals (0.4 per cent) and number of new companies registered (0.2 per cent).

The annual change of LI remained negative but indicated an improvement in May 2016, the

Concurrently, the diffusion index for LI was above 50.0 per cent while CI was below 50.0 per cent. This implies that Malaysia’s economy will continue expanding at a slower rate in the months ahead.

Statistics Department said in its Malaysian Economic Indicators: Leading, Coincident & Lagging Indexes May 2016”.

The Coincident Index (CI), which measures the current economic activity, decreased slightly by 0.2 per cent in May 2016.

The two components that contributed to the decrease were volume index of retail trade (-0.3 per cent) and real salaries & wages in the manufacturing sector (-0.2 per cent), it added.

However, the annual change of CI grew to 1.5 per cent as against 1.2 per cent in the previous month while the annual change of LI and CI showed an improvement in May 2016.

“Concurrently, the diffusion index for LI was above 50.0 per cent while CI was below 50.0 per cent.

This implies that Malaysia's economy will continue expanding at a slower rate in the months ahead,” it added. — Bernama

Statistics Department