KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 25 — Malaysia’s Leading Index (LI) performance remained positive in December 2021, rising by 2.1 per cent to 111.5 points from 109.2 points in December 2020, indicating a more sanguine economic outlook in the months ahead despite the surge in Covid-19 cases, said the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM).

Chief statistician Datuk Sri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the upward growth trend primarily supported by a sturdy gain in the number of housing units approved.

"Despite the surge of Covid-19 cases, Malaysia optimises its healthcare resources to curb the spread of Omicron variant, rather than reimplementing economic or social sanctions.

"This allows businesses to regain its momentum to spur economic recovery,” he said in a statement today.

In comparison to the previous month, the LI eased to 0.3 per cent in December 2021 compared to 1.6 per cent in November 2021, contributed by real imports of semiconductors (0.7 per cent) and number of new companies registered (0.5 per cent).

Meanwhile, the Coincident Index (CI) increased by 2.2 per cent year-on-year to 113.9 points in December 2021 compared to 111.4 per cent in December 2020.

"The CI which depicts the current state of the economy decreased to a monthly change of negative 0.3 per cent in December 2021 (November 2021: 0.9 per cent).

"The decrease in CI was mainly influenced by the decline of 0.4 per cent in capacity utilisation in the manufacturing sector,” Mohd Uzir said.

Nevertheless, the performance of the CI in December 2021 beat the pre-pandemic performance by recording 100.4 points, he concluded. — Bernama