KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 10 — The Industrial Production Index (IPI) increased 9.4 per cent year-on-year in November 2021, said Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM).

Chief statistician Datuk Sri Mohd Uzir Mahidin attributed this to the expansion in the manufacturing (11.3 per cent ), electricity (5.1 per cent) and mining (3.7 per cent) indices.

"On a month-on-month basis, the IPI increased by 0.9 per cent driven by the manufacturing index and mining index,” he said in a statement today.

Mohd Uzir revealed that the manufacturing sector output based on year-on-year comparison increased by 11.3 per cent in November 2021 after recording a growth of 8.0 per cent in October 2021.

He said the main subsectors contributed to the growth in the manufacturing sector in November 2021 were electrical and electronics products (17.8 per cent), food, beverages and tobacco products (12.9 per cent) and petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products (8.5 per cent).

Simultaneously, he said the growth of the manufacturing sector was driven by both the export-oriented industry (12.5 per cent) and domestic-oriented industry (8.8 per cent).

"The increase in export-oriented industries was mainly supported by the manufacture of computer, electronics and optical products and the manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products.

"The performance of the manufacturing sector was also in line with the encouraging growth of exports,” he said.

He said the growth for the domestic-oriented industry was attributed by the manufacture of food products and the manufacture of fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment.

"The manufacturing sector for month-on-month basis also increased 0.1 per cent compared to October 2021 where the increment was reflected by higher capacity utilisation compared to last month especially in the petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products, transport equipment and other manufactures and electrical and electronic products subsectors,” he added.

Mohd Uzir said the devastating floods that occurred in some states in December 2021 is expected to have minimal impact on the performance of the manufacturing sector and likely to increase demand especially for household appliances due to damage during the flood.

In another note, he said the mining sector output grew 3.7 per cent in November 2021 compared to the same period of the previous year attributed by the increment of 10.2 per cent in natural gas index.

He said the IPI from January to November 2021 recorded an expansion of 7.5 per cent compared to the same period of the previous year.

"The increment was impelled by the rise in all components; manufacturing index (9.6 per cent), electricity index (2.1 per cent) and mining index (1.9 per cent),” he said. — Bernama