By HARIZAH KAMEL / Pic by MUHD AMIN NAHARUL

MALAYSIA’S Industrial Production Index (IPI) grew 1.2% in January 2021 as compared to January 2020 driven by the manufacturing index with an increase of 3.5%, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM).

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said in a statement today the manufacturing sector output based on year-on-year (YoY) comparison rose by 3.5% in January after recording a growth of 4.1% in December 2020.

The major sub-sectors contributing to the growth in the manufacturing sector were electrical and electronics (E&E) products (7.9%), petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products (4.5%) and wood products, furniture, paper products and printing (2.4%).

The export-oriented industries pushed the growth of the manufacturing sector by 4.6% while domestic-oriented industries increased by 1.5%.

Mining and electricity index dropped 4.5% and 4.6% respectively. The drop in the mining sector was due to the decrease in crude oil and condensate index (-9.4%) and natural gas index (-0.5%).

In another report by DoSM, Malaysia’s manufacturing sales in January 2021 grew 4.1% at RM122.9 billion but on a monthly basis, the sales value decreased by 1.4%.

Commenting on the report, Mohd Uzir said the YoY increase was driven by food, beverages and tobacco products (7.7%), E&E products (6.4%) and transport equipment and other manufactured products (5.5%).

“The total employees engaged in the manufacturing sector in January was 2,225,697 persons, a decrease of 2.4% as compared to 2,280,915 persons in the same month last year,” he said.

The report also stated that salaries and wages paid amounted to RM7,558.0 million, decreased by 1.4% or RM105.6 million in January 2021 as against the same month of the preceding year.

Simultaneously, the sales value per employee rose by 6.7% to record RM55,213 while the average salaries and wages per employee was RM3,396.

Meanwhile, sales value of wholesale and retail trade in January 2021 fell 2.7% YoY to RM111.7 billion due to motor vehicles which contracted 13.8% or RM1.7 billion to RM10.6 billion.

Similarly, retail trade also recorded a decrease of 2.5% to register RM45.6 billion and wholesale trade depicted a similar trend with a decrease of 0.4% to RM55.4 billion.

“Online retail sales index, which portrays e-commerce activity also surged to record 28.7 per cent growth year-on-year. For seasonally adjusted retail sales index, it went up 0.5 per cent as against the previous month.

“In terms of volume index, wholesale and retail trade registered a fall of 2.9% YoY,” said Dr Uzir adding that the fall was due to motor vehicles which decreased 13.1%, followed by retail trade and wholesale trade with -3.2% and -0.1% respectively.