KUALA LUMPUR, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's Industrial Production Index (IPI) grew by 1.7 percent in September as compared with the same month last year, official data showed Monday.
The Malaysian Statistics Department said in a statement that the growth was driven by the increase in the index of manufacturing and electricity, which rose 2.5 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively.
The index of mining, however, was down 1.6 percent year-on-year, dragged by the decrease in the crude oil and condensate index.
The major sub-sectors contributing to the increase in September were transport equipment and other manufactures; non-metallic mineral products, basic metal and fabricated metal products; petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products.
For the third quarter, the IPI posted an annual growth of 1.6 percent, driven by the increases in manufacturing and electricity sectors.
MIDF Research said in a note Monday that the IPI growth in September was slightly lower than market estimates of 1.9 percent, mainly due to further contraction in mining output and moderation in factory and electricity productions.
"Moving forward, we foresee IPI performance to continue expanding at modest pace in the second half as trade war factor remains a major downside risk to global trade activities and manufacturing production in particular, which has the highest weightage in the overall IPI index," said the research house.
The research house maintained its forecast IPI growth of 2.9 percent for the full year based on the latest macro trends and indicators.
