Malaysian Industrial Output, Retail Sales Growth Eases

(RTTNews) - Malaysia's industrial output expanded at the slowest pace in the current sequence of growth that began in January 2024, and retail sales growth eased notably in February, figures from the Department of Statistics showed on Friday.

Industrial production increased 1.5 percent year-on-year in February, slower than the 2.1 percent rise in the previous month.

Among sectors, the annual decline in the mining and growth deepened to 8.9 percent in February from 3.1 percent in January, which largely caused the slowdown. Electricity production also showed a faster decline of 2.8 percent.

On the other hand, manufacturing output growth accelerated to 4.8 percent from 3.7 percent.

On a monthly basis, industrial output plunged 6.8 percent in February, following a 0.4 percent drop in January.

Another piece of official data showed that retail sales expanded 5.9 percent annually in February slower than the 8.2 percent growth in January.

Sales in non-specialized stores grew 5.9 percent versus 9.7 percent in January, and those of other goods in specialized stores climbed by 5.5 percent.

The jobless rate in Malaysia remained stable at 3.1 percent in February. There were 532,800 unemployed people in the country compared to 533,800 in January.