KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s annual change of Leading Index (LI) rose 1.5 per cent in October 2019 compared with 0.3 per cent in the previous month – the highest increase since April 2018, says the Department of Statistics.
Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the LI – which predicts the country’s economic direction – had improved in October 2019, expanding by 1.4 per cent month-on-month to 120.3 points from 118.6 points in September 2019.
“This (annual change) was the highest increase since April 2018. Thus, the economy is expected to experience a better growth in February to April 2020,” he said in the “Malaysian Economic Indicators: Leading, Coincident & Lagging Indexes for October 2019” statement released today.
He said one of the main contributors to the increase was real imports of other basic precious & other non-ferrous metals (0.9 per cent) which is mainly supported by imports of aluminium and platinum-based metals.
Another contributor is real imports of semiconductors (0.4 per cent), which is supported mainly by imports of electronic integrated components, in line with the increase in the global sales of semiconductors.