KUALA LUMPUR, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's leading index which provides an early indication of significant turning points in the business cycle and the direction of the economy in the near term, has continued its increasing momentum with 2 percent growth in February, official data showed Thursday.
The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said in a statement that this positive growth for three consecutive months reflects an optimistic economic outlook in the second quarter of 2024.
According to the DOSM, the annual performance of the leading index was supported by the rise in the Bursa Malaysia Industrial Index (28 percent) and the real imports of other basic precious and other non-ferrous metals (9.9 percent).
Looking at the monthly performance, the leading index recorded a growth of 0.4 percent in February.
It is noted that the smoothed growth rate of the leading index for February returned above the 100 points trend after 16 months below the trend.
This illustrates an uptick in forward-looking anticipation of Malaysia's economy, underpinned by continued domestic growth and household spending.
Meanwhile, the coincident index which reflects the current economic situation, maintained its positive growth of 1.9 percent in February.
This increase was in line with the encouraging performance from all coincident index components except for the real salaries and wages in manufacturing which slipped 0.8 percent.
On a monthly basis, the coincident index grew by 0.2 percent. ■