Malaysia's industrial production up 15.6% in Sept. on year

Asian Economic News, Nov 13, 2000

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov. 7 Kyodo

Malaysia's overall industrial production in September climbed 15.6% over a year earlier to 196.5 on the Industrial Production Index (IPI), the Statistics Department said Tuesday.

September marked the 14th straight month of double-digit growth since August last year, it said.

The gains in the reporting month were largely fueled by a 21.0% rise in the manufacturing sector. The IPI was also lifted by production increases in the electricity sector, which was up 12.0%. The mining sector, however, lost 8.7%.

The index rose 2.9% in September over the previous month on advances of 4.7% and 1.2% in manufacturing and electricity, respectively. Mining slipped by 6.1%.

For the first nine months of this year, the IPI averaged 185.2, 20.4% higher than 153.8 in the same period in 1999, on an expansion of 26.9% in manufacturing and a 6.2% increase in electricity. Mining contracted by 0.3%.