KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's industrial output rose 4.7% in December 2016, which was faster than economists' expectations of a 4% growth, boosted by growth especially in manufacturing. According to the Statistics Department's data released on Friday the Industrial Production Index's (IPI) increase of 4.7% was however, slower than the 6.2% recorded in November. “For the quarter as a whole, stronger industrial production and a smaller drag from agriculture are likely to offset slower services sector growth. This would imply full-year 2016 growth of 4.2%, exceeding our forecast of 4.1%.,” it said. “We also note that domestic-oriented manufacturing IP growth, as estimated by BNM, has continued to weigh on overall industrial production growth in recent months, underperforming export-oriented manufacturing industrial production,” it said.

Source: The Star February 10, 2017 04:04 UTC