FX.co ★ Malaysia Industrial Output Growth Below Estimates

In May 2025, Malaysia's industrial production posted a modest year-on-year rise of 0.3%, a significant slowdown compared to the 2.7% growth recorded in the previous month and fell short of the anticipated 1.8% market expectation. This marks the weakest performance since December 2023, when a contraction was observed. The manufacturing sector displayed reduced momentum, registering a 2.8% increase from 5.6% in April, largely driven by the electronics and electrical (E&E) segment with a 5.6% rise, food and beverages climbing by 11.1%, and basic and fabricated metals increasing by 3.5%. The electricity sector showed slight improvement with a 0.4% uptick, recovering from April's 1.7% decrease. However, the mining and quarrying sector faced a steeper decline, contracting by 10.2% compared to April's 6.3% drop, primarily due to significant decreases in natural gas output, down by 16.6%, and a 1.6% fall in crude oil and condensate production. On a seasonally adjusted month-to-month comparison, industrial activity fell by 1.3%, a sharper decline than the 0.2% drop observed in April, making it the third decline within the year. Cumulatively, for the first five months of the year, output grew by 2.0%, a slowdown from the 3.4% expansion in the same timeframe in 2024.