KUALA LUMPUR, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Malaysian economy is projected to grow at a slower rate during the period of April to June, the country's latest indexes showed Thursday.
The Malaysian Statistics Department said in a statement that the leading index, which is designed to monitor the economic performance for an average of four to six months ahead, decreased 1.4 percent month-on-month to 117.3 points in December last year, weighed down by the six out of seven components.
The significant decreases were seen by two components - real imports of other basic precious and other non-ferrous metals, and number of housing units approved - contracted 0.5 percent month-on-month respectively.
On the year-on-year basis, the leading index registered a negative growth of 1.7 percent for the reference month.
The coincident index, a measure of current economic activity, remained unchanged in December 2018.
The real salaries and wages in manufacturing sector increased 0.2 percent while real contributions to Malaysian government-owned pension fund Employee Provident Fund rose 0.1 percent.
The increases, however, were offset by the decreases in capacity utilization in manufacturing sector which dropped 0.2 percent and industrial production index that fell 0.1 percent.
On the year-on-year basis, the coincident index grew at 3.6 percent.
