1. Malaysia’s industrial output rose at a faster-than-expected pace in March from a year earlier with the manufacturing sector leading broad gains, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said.
2. The industrial production index — which measures output from factories, mines, and power plants — climbed 2.4% in March compared to the same month in 2023. That was better than the median 1.9% increase predicted in a Bloomberg survey but slower than February’s 3.1% year-on-year growth.
3. On a month-on-month basis, the index rebounded 7.5% in March from February’s decline of 6.3%.
4. The latest reading dovetails with modest improvement in factory output in major exporters China, South Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan over the same month. However, industrial production fell in Singapore while that of the US, Japan, and Thailand declined further in March.
