Malaysia’s PPI shrinks 1.5% in Nov amid decline in most sectors

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s producer price index (PPI), which measures the prices of goods at the factory gate, continued its downtrend in November 2023 with a larger year-on-year (y-o-y) contraction of 1.5 per cent compared with 0.3 per cent in October.

All sectors were in negative territory except for water supply, which recorded a 1.0 per cent growth, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM) said.

The mining sector saw the biggest drop last month at 4.7 per cent, erasing October’s 1.0 per cent growth, due to the decline in the indices for extraction of natural gas (-15.2 per cent) and extraction of crude petroleum (-1.1 per cent).

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the manufacturing sector continued to ease with a 1.4 per cent contraction (October 2023: -0.7 per cent), dragged down by the manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products (-11.7 per cent) and manufacture of food products (-4.5 per cent) indices.

Meanwhile, the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector swung to a 0.4 per cent contraction from a growth of 3.8 per cent in the previous month due to a 1.5 per cent decline in the growing of perennial crops.

The electricity and gas supply sector also shrank by 0.6 per cent, which followed the 0.5 per cent decrease in October.

On a monthly basis, the PPI for local production declined at a faster pace of 0.7 per cent in November compared to a 0.3 per cent contraction in the prior month.

Meanwhile, on the PPI by stage of processing, Mohd Uzir said the finished goods index grew 1.7 per cent y-o-y last month, cooling down from a 2.2 per cent growth in October.

In contrast, the intermediate materials, supplies and components index saw a contraction of 3.4 per cent (October 2023: -3.0 per cent).

Meanwhile, the crude materials for further processing index’s growth slowed to 0.3 per cent in November from 5.3 per cent in the previous month. – BK