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KUALA LUMPUR – The Industrial Production Index (IPI) increased 5.8% in December 2021 as compared to the same month of the previous year, the Statistics Department said.
Chief statistician Datuk Sri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the expansion of IPI was supported by the increment of 8.4% in the manufacturing index and 3.7% in the electricity index, but noted that the mining index recorded a decline of 2.5%.
“On a month-on-month basis, the IPI increased by 1.3%, driven by the manufacturing, mining and electricity indices,” he said in a statement today.
He said the manufacturing sector output increased by 8.4% year-on-year in December 2021 after recording a growth of 11.3% in November 2021.
“The main subsectors that contributed to the growth in the manufacturing sector in December 2021 were electrical and electronics products (18.2%), food, beverages and tobacco products (10.3%) and non-metallic mineral products, basic metal and fabricated metal products (5.3%),” he said.
Simultaneously, he said the growth of the manufacturing sector was driven by both export-oriented industry (9.6%) and domestic-oriented industry (5.7%).
“The increase in export-oriented industries was mainly supported by the manufacture of computer, electronics and optical products and manufacture of vegetable and animal oils and fats,” he said.
He 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 to the manufacture of food products and basic metals.
“The manufacturing sector on month-on-month basis increased 0.5% as compared to November 2021, supported by higher capacity utilisation especially in the electrical and electronic products and petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products subsectors,” he said.
He said the decline of mining sector output in December 2021 as compared to the same period of the previous year was due to the 5.5% decrease in crude oil and condensate index and 0.2% decrease in natural gas index.
However, he said the mining index registered an increase of 4.1% as compared to the previous month.
He said the electricity sector output rose 3.7% year-on-year in December 2021 while on the month-on-month comparison, the electricity index increased by 1.7%.
Uzir said the IPI for the fourth quarter of 2021 grew 6.9% as compared to the same period of the previous year with the increase attributed to the growth in the manufacturing index (9.2%) and electricity index (4.3%) while the mining index contracted 0.8%.
He said the IPI in 2021 recorded an expansion of 7.4% as compared to 2020, influenced by the rise in all components including the manufacturing index (9.5%), electricity index (2.3%) and mining index (1.5%).
Uzir said compared to the period before the occurrence of Covid-19 in 2019, the IPI grew 2.7% and the manufacturing index increased by 6.6%.
“Subsectors which surpassed the manufacturing index in 2019 were electrical and electronics products (17.2%), petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products (12.2%), food, beverages and tobacco (0.2%).
“The subsectors that have not yet recovered were non-metallic mineral products, basic metal and fabricated metal products (-9.2%), textile, wearing apparel, leather and footwear (-6.4%), transport equipment and other manufacturers (-4.5%) and wood, furniture, paper products and printing (-1.4%),” he added. – Bernama, February 8, 2022