Malaysian economic activity softens in August

Source: Xinhua | 2019-10-28

Malaysia's leading index, which predicts the economic activity direction on average of four to six months ahead, declined to negative 0.8 percent in August, from 1.4 percent in previous month, official data showed Friday.
Malaysian Statistics Department said in a statement that the leading index softened in August, dragged mainly by real imports of other basic precious and other none-ferrous metals; the number of housing units approved.
The trend was parallel with the annual change of leading index, which showed a negative growth of 0.5 percent as against 0.4 percent in the previous month, it added.
"Despite the fluctuations in both indexes, the growth rate of smoothed leading index is consistently above the trend and moving upwards. This implies that the economy is anticipated to remain well in the expansion phase," it said.
Meanwhile, the coincident index, which reflects the current economic performance, increased further to 2.3 percent in August, from 1.8 percent in July.