KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s industrial production grew faster than expected in Jan, climbing 3.2% from a year earlier, government data showed on Thursday.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast Jan’s annual output growth to come in at 2.4%.
The pace was slightly slower than Dec’s growth, which came in at 3.4% annually.
The index measures factory output from the manufacturing, electricity generation and mining sectors.
Growth in Jan was supported by gains in the manufacturing and electricity sectors, data from the Statistics Department showed.
Manufacturing output rose 4.2% year-on-year in Jan, while the electricity generation sectoral index grew 7.8%.
Mining output was down 0.9%, the data showed.
Malaysia’s exports grew 3.1% year-on-year in Jan, better than expected but slower than Dec’s 4.8% expansion.