DOSM: LEADING INDEX RECORDS ANOTHER DOUBLE-DIGIT GROWTH IN APRIL 2021

KUALA LUMPUR, June 25 -- Malaysia’s Leading Index (LI) continued to register a double-digit growth in April, rising 15.7 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to 111.8 points following a surge of 17.2 per cent in March, said the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).

The LI is a predictive tool used to anticipate economic upturns and downturns in an average of four to six months ahead.

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the improvement was supported by positive contributions of all LI components and influenced mainly by the low base effect of 96.6 points in April last year. 

The LI decreased by 1.2 per cent month-on-month.

“The growth rate of ‘smoothed LI’, which is used to predict the direction of economic movements in the near future, remained positive. The LI anticipates favourable economic performance if the pandemic eases,” Mohd Uzir said in a statement today.

He added that the short-term outlook was in line with the strengthening of global demand, while an effective rollout of the National Recovery Plan would accelerate the country's economic growth. 

The Coincident Index (CI) gained 0.8 per cent to reach 115.4 points in April 2021 from 114.5 points in the previous month, supported by significant increases in capacity utilisation in the manufacturing sector (0.9 per cent) and the volume index of retail trade (0.6 per cent), according to DOSM.

Similarly, the CI, which reflects the current state of the economy, jumped to an annual growth of 20.3 per cent in the reference month from 4.1 per cent y-oy in March.

-- BERNAMA