April Leading Index Reflect Challenging Economic Scenario: DOSM

Department of Statistics Malaysia has released the Malaysian Economic Indicators: Leading, Coincident & Lagging Index for April which is a predictive tool used to anticipate economic upturns and downturns in an average of four to six months ahead. The latest indicators point to a further decline to negative 2.7%, registering 108.4 points as against 111.4 points in the preceding year.

Decreases were recorded in all of the LI components, which resulted in a softer performance except for the Number of Housing Units Approved showed an uptick. Concurrently, the monthly LI dropped 1.6% in April 2023, as opposed to negative 1.1% in the previous month. Apart from Expected Sales Value in Manufacturing, most components similarly experienced downturns”.

The April smoothed LI growth rate remained below the 100.0 points trend for seven consecutive months, reflecting Malaysia’s challenging economic outlook in the near term, with global economic conditions adding to the challenges. In terms of the current economic situation, the Coincident Index (CI) registered 121.8 points in April 2023, an increase of 2.2 % compared to 119.2 points in the same month of the previous year. The increase in the Volume Index of Retail Trade (9.5%) contributed significantly to this growth. Meanwhile, the CI decreased by 0.1 % month on month, owing to the unfavourable performance of the Industrial Production Index (1.0%).