Malaysia Industrial Production Growth Improves; Jobless Rate Falls Further

(RTTNews) - Malaysia's industrial production increased at a faster pace in July, driven by strong growth in the manufacturing, electricity and mining sector output, data from the Department of Statistics showed on Friday.

The unemployment rate decreased slightly for the second straight month in July, another report from the statistical office showed.

Industrial production expanded 12.5 percent year-on-year in July, following a 12.1 percent increase in June. Production has been growing since September last year.

Among sectors, manufacturing output grew the most by 14.9 percent annually in July, following a 14.4 percent gain in the prior month.

Production in the electricity and mining sectors logged a growth of 13.2 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively, in July.

On a monthly basis, industrial production dropped 4.7 percent in July.

Separate data from the statistical office revealed that the unemployment rate fell to 3.7 percent in July from 3.8 percent in June.

Moreover, this was the lowest rate since February 2020, when it was 3.3 percent.

The number of unemployed people decreased to 620,700 in July from 630,600 in the previous month.

The labor force participation rate rose to 69.6 percent in July from 69.5 percent in the preceding month.