Malaysian economy expected to grow from May to July

KUALA LUMPUR, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Malaysian economy is expected to improve in May to July period based on its January leading, coincident and lagging indexes, its statistics department said on Monday.

The department said in a statement that the economy is inclined to grow in May to July based on the current trend of leading index which started to increase.

The leading index, which is designed to indicate the direction of economy for an average of four to six months ahead, rose 1.3 percent month-on-month to 118.9 points in January.

The number of housing units approved which rose 0.7 percent and real imports of semi-conductors that increased by 0.4 percent, were the main drivers to the growth.

The annual change of leading index remained negative by falling 1.1 percent, but still better than in the previous month when showed a contraction of 1.7 percent.

Meanwhile, the coincident index which represents the current economic performance increased 0.5 percent in January.

The components that significantly contributed to the increase were total employment in the manufacturing sector which registered 0.3 percent.