KUALA LUMPUR, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's Industrial Production Index (IPI) rose 3.1 percent year-on-year in 2018, supported by the expansion of manufacturing and electricity sector, official statistics showed on Monday.
Malaysian Statistics Department said in a statement that the increase was contributed by the growth in manufacturing sector which grew 4.8 percent, and electricity sector that increased by 3.7 percent.
The mining sector, however, declined by 1.9 percent for the year.
As for December last year, the IPI expanded 3.4 percent year-on-year, driven by the increase in all indices, manufacturing up 4.4 percent, electricity and mining up 2.7 percent and 1 percent respectively.
The major sub-sectors that contributed to the growth in manufacturing sector were electrical and electronic equipment products that surged 7.2 percent, transport equipment and other manufactures products which rose 7 percent, and petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products that grew 3.6 percent.
The increase of mining sector was contributed by the growth in crude oil index that expanded 2.5 percent. However, the natural gas index decreased marginally by 0.2 percent.
In a separate statement, the statistics department also said that the manufacturing sector sales value jumped 7.7 percent year-on-year to 824.8 billion ringgit (about 202.53 billion U.S. dollars) in 2018.
