Malaysia March factory output up 2.8% y-o-y, slightly above forecast

[KUALA LUMPUR] Malaysia's March industrial production grew 2.8 per cent from a year earlier, supported by growth in the manufacturing and electricity sectors, government data showed on Thursday.

The figure was slightly above the 2.7 per cent growth forecast by economists in a Reuters poll.

Electricity output grew 7.7 per cent year-on-year slowing from the previous month's pace of 10.5 per cent, data from the Statistics Department showed. However, mining output declined.

Factory output in February had expanded 3.9 per cent year-on-year, supported by growth in the electricity, manufacturing and mining sectors.

Industrial production expanded 3.3 per cent in the first quarter compared with the same quarter last year, on growth in the manufacturing and electricity sectors. However, mining declined 0.3 per cent.

Malaysia's exports in March expanded just 0.2 per cent from a year earlier, on lower earnings from liquefied natural gas and crude oil.

A private manufacturing purchasing managers' index showed Malaysian factory activity in April contracted at the sharpest pace since November as domestic demand and export orders fell.

REUTERS