Last week’s highlights

• Ministry of Finance Malaysia (MOF) had released its 58th LAKSANA report last week.

• Malaysia's CPI rose by 4.4% yoy in May

• The World Bank revised down Malaysia’s GDP growth projection to 4.5% in 2021.

• The FBM KLCI fell by 1.85% or 29.37 points for the week to settle at 1,559.68 points

• US’s personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index rose further by 3.9% yoy in May

• US personal income went down by 2.0% mom or USD414.3bn in May 2021

• Singapore’s headline consumer price index (CPI) increased 2.4% yoy in May

• Singapore’s manufacturing output in May surged 30.0% yoy

• Taiwan's industrial production index increased 16.51% in May 2021

• Central banks of England, China, Thailand and Philippines kept the interest rates unchanged, while Hungary, Mexico and Czech Republic hikes.

MALAYSIA ECONOMY

• According to the Ministry of Finance Malaysia (MOF) 58th LAKSANA report, under BNM-SMEs soft loan funds, a total of RM12.14bn was approved to 25,711 applicants. Under the tourism sector financing PENJANA, 331 applications were approved with total funding of RM65.9m. For technical and digital adoption for SMEs and mid-tier companies (MTC), a total of RM67.7m has been distributed to 13,870 recipients. Under the Agrobank Microcredit Financing Scheme, a total of 13,229 agricultural Micro SMEs had received RM161.46m fund. Furthermore, a total of RM3.98m has been disbursed to 518 recipients under CENDANA initiative. As of reporting date, a total of RM791.13m had been channeled based on 2,211,424 claims to the front liners as allowance. As of 11th June, a total of 143,309 persons have joined the reskilling and upskilling program under various government agencies.

• Malaysia's CPI rose slower by 4.4% yoy in May compared to 4.7% yoy in the previous month. May's headline inflation marked the second month of inflation above the upper level of BNM inflation projection 2021 of 2.5-4.0%. The inflation was the highest May rate since 1998 (5.8%), largely driven by low base effect, higher fuel prices, energy, utilities, vegetable oil, foods, and household items. On a monthly basis, consumer prices remained stagnant compared to 0.2% in the previous month. The non-food price index increased slower by 5.9% yoy (Apr: +6.1%), while the food price index increased by +1.5% yoy (Apr: +1.9%). CPI without fuel, which covers all goods and services except RON95, RON97 and Diesel, increased 1.6% in May (Apr: +1.7%).

• The World Bank revised down its gross domestic product (GDP) growth projection for Malaysia for the second time to 4.5% in 2021 from 6% estimated in March and 6.7% in December 2020. The slashed took into account the recent resurgence of COVID-19 cases, slower vaccination, and persistent economic disruption, which could dwindle the private consumption affecting overall domestic demand.

Source: BIMB Securities Research - 28 Jun 2021