Economic Highlights (Malaysia) - 24/04/2014

Leading Index Inched Lower In February, Pointing To A Moderate Pace of Recovery In Economic Activities

¨        The Leading Index (LI), which provides an early signal of the direction of the economy, dropped by 0.3% m-o-m in February, after stagnating in January and compared with +0.2% in January.  Correspondingly, y-o-y, the leading index grew at a more moderate pace of 1.0% in February, compared with +2.4% in January and a high of +4.1% in September. 

¨        The slowdown in the leading index suggests that economic activities will likely improve modestly in the months ahead. Growth, however, will be supported by sustained increase in private investment, underpinned by the ongoing implementation of the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) and various corridor projects. This will likely be aided by resilient consumer spending and a pick-up in exports. The former will be supported by an increase in fiscal transfer and civil servants’ pay effective 1 July 2013, while the latter will be aided by a recovery in global economy, in tandem with a pick-up in global trade volume.

¨        As a whole, we expect real GDP to expand at a faster rate of 5.4% in 2014, after moderating to +4.7% in 2013 and compared with +5.6% in 2012.

Link to the report:  Leading Index Inched Lower In February, Pointing To A Moderate Pace of Recovery In Economic Activities

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