Malaysia Industrial Production Growth Slows; Jobless Rate Falls

(RTTNews) - Malaysia's industrial production continued to increase at a robust pace in September, albeit slower compared to the previous month, driven by the strong growth in the manufacturing, electricity and mining sector output, data from the Department of Statistics showed on Tuesday.

The unemployment rate declined marginally in September, another report from the statistical office showed.

Industrial production rose 10.8 percent year-on-year in September, after a 13.5 percent increase in August.

Among the main sectors, manufacturing output increased 10.4 percent annually in September, after a 15.2 percent gain in the prior month.

Production in the mining sectors and electricity rose by 15.0 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively, in September.

On a monthly basis, industrial production grew 1.3 percent in September.

Separate data from the statistical office revealed that the unemployment rate fell to 3.6 percent in September from 3.7 percent in August.

The number of unemployed people decreased to 605,000 in September from 612,000 in the previous month.

The labor force participation rate remained unchanged at 69.7 percent in September.