The Leading Index (LI) for October 2023 maintained its annual growth at negative 0.2 per cent by recording 109.2 points as compared to 109.4 points in the same month of the preceding year.
The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) released the Malaysian Economic Indicators: Leading, Coincident & Lagging Indexes for October 2023 today (Dec 22), which cited that the decline was due to the contraction in the Real Imports of Semi-Conductors (-33.6%), which demonstrated negative performance for 10 consecutive months.
Conversely, there were increases in the Number of Housing Units Approved (40.0%) and Number of New Companies Registered (23.4%). Looking at the monthly performance, the decline in LI narrowed to negative 0.2 per cent as against a negative 0.3 per cent in the previous month. This better performance was fuelled by the Real Imports of Other Basic Precious & Other Non-ferrous Metals (0.5%) and Number of New Companies Registered (0.3%). Nevertheless, the decline in Real Imports of Semi Conductors (-1.0%) affected the overall growth.
Chief Statistician Malaysia, Dato’ Sri Dr. Mohd Uzir Mahidin (pic) said, “The Leading Index for October 2023 maintained its annual growth at negative 0.2 per cent by recording 109.2 points as compared to 109.4 points in the same month of the preceding year.
“The decline was due to the contraction in the Real Imports of Semi Conductors (-33.6%), which demonstrated negative performance for 10 consecutive months. Conversely, there were increases in the Number of Housing Units Approved (40.0%) and Number of New Companies Registered (23.4%). Looking at the monthly performance, the decline in LI narrowed to negative 0.2 per cent as against a negative 0.3 per cent in the previous month.
This better performance was fuelled by the Real Imports of Other Basic Precious & Other Non-ferrous Metals (0.5%) and Number of New Companies Registered (0.3%). Nevertheless, the decline in Real Imports of Semi Conductors (-1.0%) affected the overall growth.”
The smoothed growth rate of the LI for October 2023 remained below the 100.0 points trend anticipating a modest growth prospect, bolstered by the promising private consumption and encouraging labour market landscape.
In view of the current economic situation, the Coincident Index (CI) continued its positive growth since September 2021 by registering 124.1 points, rose by 2.9 per cent as compared to 120.6 points in the same month of the previous year. This performance was contributed by all components, mainly the Real Contributions, EPF (17.1%).
Simultaneously, the CI monthly change registered an increase of 0.3 per cent, supported by all components except the Volume Index of Retail Trade (-0.3%).
