PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s Industrial Production Index (IPI) dropped 4.9% in March 2020 as compared with the same month of the previous year, contributed by the decrease in all indices, which were index of manufacturing (-4.2%), index of mining (-6.5%) and index of electricity (-7.0%).
Chief statistician Malaysia Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said on a year-on-year basis, the manufacturing sector output dropped 4.2% in March 2020 after increasing 6.2% in February 2020.
The major sub-sectors contributing to the decrease in manufacturing sector in March 2020 were electrical and electronics products (-5.0%), non-metallic mineral products, basic metal and fabricated metal products (-9.8%) and food, beverages and tobacco (-9.9%).
The mining sector output dropped 6.5% in March 2020 as compared to the same period of the previous year, due to the decrease in natural gas index (-6.0%) and crude oil and condensate index (-7.1%).
The electricity sector output decreased 7.0% in March 2020 as compared to the same month of the previous year.
The IPI for the first quarter 2020 grew 0.4% as compared to the same period of the previous year, contributed by the increase of 1.3% in manufacturing index. Meanwhile, electricity index and mining index recorded a reduction of 0.4% and 1.8% respectively.
