KUALA LUMPUR, July 27 — The recent prints showing easing inflation and an improving labour market are positive indicators for the Malaysian economy, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM) said.

Inflation eased further in June 2023 to its lowest rate in the first half of 2023, marking a new low of 2.4 per cent from 2.8 per cent in May 2023, DoSM said in a statement today.

Additionally, the Malaysian labour market continued to improve in May 2023, with the number of employed persons increasing by 2.4 per cent year-on-year to 16.28 million persons.

"This was accompanied by an increase in the employment-to-population ratio, which rose to 67.6 per cent from 66.8 per cent in the previous year.

"The overall labour force also increased by 2.0 per cent year-on-year to 16.86 million,” it said.

As a result, the agency said the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) rose by 0.5 percentage points, reaching 70.0 per cent, while the unemployment rate saw a decrease of 0.4 per cent, settling at 3.5 per cent in May 2023.

It said Malaysia's Industrial Production Index (IPI) in May 2023 also experienced a significant rebound, showing a positive growth of 4.7 per cent.

DoSM said this was a noteworthy improvement compared to the negative 3.3 per cent recorded in the previous month.

Similarly, the country’s manufacturing sector saw a strong recovery in sales value in May 2023, reaching RM146.8 billion, up 3.3 per cent, while the wholesale and retail trade sector posted a 6.6 per cent increase in monthly sales in May 2023 compared to the previous year, it said.

Meanwhile, it noted that Malaysia's Producer Price Index (PPI) extended a downtrend, falling further to negative 4.8 per cent last month from negative 4.6 per cent the month before. — Bernama