KUALA LUMPUR, March 11 — Malaysia’s Industrial Production Index (IPI) increased 4.3 per cent in January 2022 compared with the same month of the previous year, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM) said.

Chief statistician Datuk Sri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the expansion of IPI was contributed by the increment of 6.8 per cent in the manufacturing index and 7.7 per cent in the electricity index, but the mining index recorded a decline of 5.1 per cent.

"On month-on-month basis, the IPI decreased by 1.2 per cent, affected by the manufacturing and mining indices,” he said in a statement today.

Mohd Uzir said the manufacturing sector output based on year-on-year comparison increased by 6.8 per cent in January 2022 after recording a growth of 8.4 per cent in December 2021.

He said the main subsectors contributed to the growth in the manufacturing sector in January 2022 were electrical & electronics products (14.4 per cent), food, beverage & tobacco products (6.7 per cent), and non-metallic mineral products, basic metal & fabricated metal products (6.2 per cent),

Simultaneously, he said the growth of the manufacturing sector was driven by both of export-oriented industry (6.7 per cent) and domestic-oriented industry (7.0 per cent).

 ”The increase in export-oriented industry was mainly supported by the manufacture of computer, electronics & optical products and manufacture of chemicals & chemical products,” he said.

 Mohd Uzir said the performance of the manufacturing sector was also in line with the encouraging growth of exports. 

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

“For month-on-month comparison, the manufacturing sector decreased 1.7 per cent compared with December 2021, influenced by lower capacity utilisation especially in the electrical & electronic products and food, beverages & tobacco products subsectors.

“The mining sector output declined 5.1 per cent in January 2022 compared with the same period of the previous year. The deterioration was affected by the decrease of 13.9 per cent in crude oil & condensate index,” he said

 Meanwhile, Mohd Uzir said natural gas index grew 1.6 per cent but the mining index registered a marginal decrease of 0.02 per cent compared with the previous month. 

“The electricity sector output rose 7.7 per cent in January 2022 compared with the same month a year earlier. Concurrently, in terms of month-on-month comparison, the electricity index increased by 1.6 per cent,” he said. — Bernama