KUALA LUMPUR, 9 April 2009: The Industrial Production Index (IPI) for February 2009 declined by 14.7% compared to the same month last year, following a revised 19.8% year-on-year decline in January 2009.
The drop in February 2009 was due to decreases in the manufacturing (18.8%), mining (7.3%) and electricity (3%) indices, said the Statistics Department.
On a monthly basis, the IPI was down by 3.7%, it said in a statement today.
The cumulative index for the first two months of 2009 was down 17.4% compared to the same period last year.
The contraction of the manufacturing output was due to decreases in the groups of electrical and electronics products (41.4%); wood products, furniture, paper products and printing (20.2%); and petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products (5.8%).
According to the department, the manufacturing output in February 2009 was lower by 18.8% compared with February 2008.
The January 2009 output went down by 26.3% (revised) compared with the same month in 2008, it said.
Compared with the preceding month, the February 2009 output was lower marginally by 0.7%.
Growth for the first two months of 2009 dropped by 22.8% as compared with the same period last year.
The mining sector output fell 7.3% in February 2009 as compared with the same month last year, the department said.
This, it said, was due to the decreases in the indices of crude oil (7.8%) and natural gas (6.1%), it said.
Compared with the preceding month, the mining output was lower by 9.9%.
For the first two months of 2009, the mining sector saw a drop of 6.5% as compared with the same period a year ago.
For electricity, the output went down 3% in February 2009 as compared with a year earlier, the department said.
In February 2009, the electricity output posted a marginal decline of 0.2% against the previous month, it said.
A decrease of 8% was recorded in the January-February 2009 period as compared with the same period last year, it added. — Bernama
