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KUALA LUMPUR (April 11): Malaysia’s industrial production growth decelerated sharply in February as contraction in mining output and electricity generation offset gains in manufacturing activity, official data Friday showed.

The industrial production index — which measures output from factories, mines, and power plants — rose 1.5% in February from a year earlier, the Department of Statistics Malaysia said. That’s below the 2.0% gain predicted in a Bloomberg survey and January’s 2.1% year-on-year increase.

On a month-on-month basis, the index declined 6.8% in February, worsening from the 0.4% drop in January.

The latest reading tracked the downtrend in China, the US, Japan and Singapore, while Taiwan, Vietnam and South Korea reported significant increases in industrial production during the month.

On a year-on-year basis, the key manufacturing sector expanded at a faster rate of 4.8% compared to 3.7% in January. The electricity sector shrank 2.8%, a steeper contraction than a 0.2% drop in January, while the mining was sharply down 8.9%, versus a 3.1% decline a month earlier.

Growth of domestic-oriented industries, however, accelerated to 2.9% compared to January’s 0.2% growth, thanks to processed food, fabricated metals, and printing and reproduction of recorded media.

Export-oriented industries were slightly faster at 5.7% in February versus 5.6% a month earlier, supported by computers, electronic, and optical products as well as vegetable-and-animal oils and fats.

Manufacturing sales totalled RM153.1 billion in February, a 4.7% increase when compared to the same month in 2024, the department said in a separate statement. Compared to January, sales were down 3.2%.

Sales in the sector were mostly supported by food, electrical-and-electronics, and non-metallic mineral products, basic metal and fabricated metal products sub-sectors.