Malaysia's Q1 GDP Likely To Be Boosted By Manufacturing Sector

KUALA LUMPUR, May 15 (Bernama) -- Malaysia’s first quarter (Q1) gross domestic product (GDP) growth is likely to be boosted by the manufacturing sector, says Standard Chartered Research. It said the Department of Statistics (DOS) will release Malaysia’s Q1 GDP data on May 19. "We forecast a GDP growth of 4.9 per cent year-on-year, higher than the 4.5 per cent in Q4-2016," it said in a research note Monday. It said industrial production growth was resilient in Q1, with the manufacturing sector growing 5.6 per cent year-on-year versus 5.0 per cent in Q4, on the back of robust demand for electronics. "Exports picked up in early 2017 on strong demand in the region, driven primarily by China’s inventory rebuild, as well as higher commodity prices," it said. However, the research house said the country's import growth was surprisingly robust on strong capital goods imports, which led to a slight narrowing of the trade surplus, which may have weighed on GDP growth. Meanwhile, Standard Chartered Research is also of the view that Malaysia's consumer price index (CPI) inflation may ease in April. The DOS will release the April CPI data on May 17. "We expect headline inflation to have eased slightly to 4.2 per cent year-on-year from 5.1 per cent in March. "We also expect Bank Negara Malaysia (Central Bank of Malaysia) to continue looking past the recent rise in headline CPI inflation which has been driven by administrative and supply measures, and keep the policy rate unchanged at three per cent for 2017, while maintaining focus on core inflation and growth," it added. --BERNAMA