The seasonally adjusted S&P Global Malaysia Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) declined by 0.6% to 49.9 in June 2024 from 50.2 in May 2024, indicating a moderate state in the manufacturing sector.

“Encouragingly, firms were able to secure higher volumes of new work again, though some reports indicated that demand remained muted.

“As such, manufacturers were happy to keep their output and employment levels unchanged,” he said.

Harker said cost inflation was also stable, although firms were more willing to raise their own selling prices than has been the case for some time.

“Taking the second quarter as a whole, the PMI data represented an improvement relative to the opening part of the year, auguring well for upcoming official data prints,” he said in a statement.

S&P Global Malaysia said the increase in overall new business partly reflected sustained growth of new export orders, which rose for the third consecutive month.

“Firms reported higher new orders from customers in a range of Asia-Pacific destinations, including Australia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

“New order growth is expected to be sustained over the coming year, supporting optimism regarding the outlook for manufacturing production,” it added.