Last week’s highlights

• Ministry of Finance Malaysia (MOF) had released its 60th LAKSANA report last week.

• Unemployment rate was slightly lower to 4.5% in May.

• The FBM KLCI fell by 0.83% or 12.77 points for the week to settle at 1,520.58 points

• US wholesale inventories grew 1.3% mom in May to USD709.80bn

• UK index of production increased by 0.8% mom in May 2021

• China’s consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.1% yoy in June

• Thailand's headline inflation in June surged 1.25% from a year ago

• Philippine headline CPI in June rose by 4.1% yoy

• Taiwan exports in June rose by 35.1% annually to almost USD36.65bn

• Singapore's retail trade surged 79.7% yoy in May 2021 to SGD3.3bn

• RBA, BNM and NBP kept the interest rates unchanged.

MALAYSIA ECONOMY

• According to the Ministry of Finance Malaysia (MOF) 60th LAKSANA report, under BSN micro-credit financing, a total of RM33.451m were disbursed to the 1,486- micro-enterprise. For technical and digital adoption for SMEs and mid-tier companies (MTC), a total of RM72.0m has been distributed to 13,872 recipients. Furthermore, for Lestari Bumi Scheme under SME Bank, a total of RM3.902m had disbursed to 15 micro-enterprises. Besides, the fund worth of RM18.663m had been disbursed to 3,175 participants under the Tekun informal financing scheme. For Tekun Mobilepreneur 4.0 program, which focuses on repair and purchasing motorcycles, a total of RM3.856m had been distributed to 409 applicants. With the imposition of full movement control order (FMCO), the government has distributed 438,376 baskets under the Food Basket Program to support people's welfare and wellbeing.

• The unemployment rate was slightly lower to 4.5% in May as compared to the previous month. The number of unemployed persons reduced by 2.0% or 14.6k persons to register 728.1k unemployed persons. The unemployment rate for May was lowered by 0.8 ppt year-on-year, with the number of unemployed persons reduced by 98.0k persons. Employed persons increased by 0.1% mom or 18.8k persons to 15.37m persons in May 2021 for the sixth straight month. Similarly, on a year-on-year comparison, the indicator continued to post positive growth for the third straight month, whereby the number of employed persons rose 3.2% during the month. The employment-to- population ratio which indicates the ability of an economy to create employment remained unchanged at 65.4%. Year-on-year, the employment-to-population ratio grew by 1.0 percentage points from 64.4%. The labor force participation rate (LFPR) ticked lower at 68.5%, compared to the previous month. Meanwhile, the number of labor force changed over the month with an additional of 4.2k persons to record 16.10m persons. Year-on-year comparison, the number of labor force improved by 384.9k persons (May’20: 15.7m persons). In the meantime, when compared to the same month of the preceding year, the LFPR rose to 68.5% (May’20: 68.0%).

Source: BIMB Securities Research - 12 Jul 2021