business communication

June industrial production index fell 9.6%

Malaysian industrial production index (IPI) dropped 9.6% in June from a year earlier, led by continued declines in manufacturing and mining activities.
Power generation activities posted a slight increase.
According latest figures released by the Statistics Department on Monday, the IPI posted a marginal 0.2% increase compared to May. The cumulative index for the period of January-June 2009 declined 12.7% as against the same period in 2008.
The manufacturing output in June 2009 dropped 13.1% as against June 2008. Output for May 2009 went down by a revised 15.6% as compared with the same month of 2008.
As compared with the preceding month, the output for June 2009 increased 2.9%. The growth for the first six months of 2009 was lower by 16.9% as compared with the same period of last year.
The department said the contraction of the manufacturing output was due to decreases in electrical and electronics products (27.5%); non-metallic mineral products, basic metal and fabricated metal products (12.8%); and petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products (4.6%).