KUCHING: Leading Index (LI) hints the economy is likely to continue growing in the near term according to the Department of Statistics’ newly released Malaysian Economic Indicators: Leading, Coincident, and Lagging Indexes for December 2019.
Chief Statistician Malaysia Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said based on the data for the month of December 2019 prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, the LI registered an annual growth of 1.4 per cent.
The LI monthly growth rate contracted 0.8 per cent in the last month of 2019. This was mainly affected by the decreased in Real Imports of Semi Conductors (-0.4 per cent) and Expected Sales Value in Manufacturing sector (-0.4 per cent).
“Concurrently, the growth rate of LI (smooth) remains favourable above trend which implies that the economic growth is likely to continue in the near term without considering the internal and external shock to the economy.
“However, Covid-19 may cause disruption to the economy and impose uncertainty if the situation is prolonged,” informed Mohd Uzir.
The Leading Index is one of the tools used to provide information about the future direction of an economy.
