KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 23): The Leading Index (LI) continued its positive trend by registering a 3.5% growth and reached 113.4 points in June 2024, compared with 109.6 in the same month last year, said the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) on Friday.

The LI is a tool utilised to predict economic trends for an average of four to six months ahead.

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the Bursa Malaysia Industrial Index demonstrated robust performance with 42.2%, positioning it as the primary contributor to the increase.

“However, the monthly performance of the LI decreased marginally by 0.7% due to declines in five out of the seven components except for the Bursa Malaysia Industrial Index (0.4%) and Real Money Supply, M1 (0.2%),” he said in a statement.

Looking at the smoothed long-term trend in June 2024, the DOSM said the LI remained above 100 points, reflecting Malaysia’s sustainable and resilient economic growth.

It said that as Malaysia is a consumer-driven economy, the implementation of the salary revision initiative is poised to boost domestic spending.

Regarding the current economic performance, the DOSM said the Coincident Index (CI) maintained its positive growth since September 2021 with 2.6%, achieving 126.4 points in June 2024.

“The real contributions, EPF (8.5%) was the main driver of this increase, followed by a 6.4% rise in the Volume Index of Retail Trade.

“Correspondingly, the monthly performance of CI showed a similar pattern, increasing 0.2%, contributed by all components except for Capacity Utilisation in Manufacturing (-0.3%),” it said.

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