The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) released the Malaysian Economic Indicators: Leading, Coincident & Lagging Indexes for February 2024 today (Apr 25).
Chief Statistician Malaysia, Dato’ Sri Dr. Mohd Uzir Mahidin said, “The annual growth rate of the LI continued its increasing momentum with 2.0 per cent, registering 112.7 points in February 2024 as compared to 110.5 points in the same month of the previous year.
“This positive growth for three consecutive months reflects an optimist economic outlook in the second quarter of 2024. The annual performance of LI was supported by the rise in the Bursa Malaysia Industrial Index (28.0%) and followed by the Real Imports of Other Basic Precious & Other Non-ferrous Metals (9.9%).
“Looking at the monthly performance, LI recorded 0.4 per cent in February 2024, backed by the Number of Housing Units Approved (0.4%) and Real Imports of Semi Conductors (0.2%)”.
“The smoothed growth rate of the LI for February 2024 returned above the 100.0 points trend after 16 months below the trend. This illustrates an uptick in forward-looking anticipation of Malaysia’s economy, underpinned by continued domestic growth and household spending.
The Coincident Index (CI) which reflects the current economic situation maintained its positive growth of 1.9 per cent to 124.2 points in February 2024 as compared to 121.9 points in the same month of the previous year.
This increase was in line with the encouraging performance from all CI components except for the Real Salaries & Wages in Manufacturing (-0.8%). At the same time, the monthly performance of CI grew by 0.2 per cent, driven by an increase in the Volume Index of Retail Trade (0.4%).
The Leading Index (LI) provides an early indication of significant turning points in the business cycle and the direction of the economy in the near term.
