KUALA LUMPUR (March 27): Malaysia’s producer price index (PPI), which measures price changes of goods at the producer level, increased by 0.3% in February 2024 from -0.6 % in January 2024, the Department of Statistics Malaysia said.

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector rose 6.0% (January 2024: 3.2%), contributed by the growing of perennial crops (8.1%), fishing (7.5%) and animal production (4.3%) indices.

“At the same time, the mining sector recorded an increase of 5.3% (January: -1.3%) with the index of extraction of crude petroleum posting a 7.9% increase.

“The water supply index went up 3.6% in February 2024 (January: 0.6%) following the increase in water tariffs across the country starting Feb 1, 2024. The electricity and gas supply sector was also slightly up by 0.1% in February (January: -0.8%),” he said.

Meanwhile, Mohd Uzir said the manufacturing sector continued to decline by 0.7% (January: -0.9%), attributing this to a drop in the manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products (-12.6%), and manufacture of food products (-3.3%) indices.

"On a monthly basis, PPI local production increased by 0.7% after a decline of 0.1% in the previous month. The manufacturing sector remained unchanged, while all other sectors recorded an increase in February.

“The mining sector went up 5.7% with the increase in both the extraction of crude petroleum (5.8%) and extraction of natural gas (5.2%) indices. The agriculture, forestry and fishing sector rose 2.6% due to the growing of perennial crops (4.3%) and fishing (3.7%),” he said.

For the utility sector, he said electricity and gas supply and water supply increased by 0.9% and 2.7% respectively in February.

On the PPI local production by stage of processing, Mohd Uzir said the crude materials for further processing index increased by 5.6% in February (January: 2.3%), with the non-food materials index posting an increase of 6.0%.

“The finished goods index inched up by 1.1% (January: 0.5%), attributed to the increase in the capital equipment (2.9%) index.

“On the other hand, the Intermediate materials, supplies and components index continued to decrease by 1.7% (January: -2.0%) due to the processed fuel and lubricants (-12.9%) and materials and components for manufacturing (-0.5%) indices,” he said.

On a monthly basis, he said all indeces posted an increase in February, with crude materials for further processing up by 2.7%, while finished goods and intermediate materials, supplies and components indices increased by 0.7% and 0.1% respectively.

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