KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Malaysia's industrial production
fell 0.7 percent in August from a year earlier, beating market expectations,official data showed on Thursday.
A Reuters poll had forecast output to fall by 2.0 percent, the first declinein 13 months, because of weak demand for the Southeast nation's top exports ofelectronics and commodities.
Last week the government reported a 4.5 percent drop in August exports, thebiggest year-on-year decline in nearly three years, pulled down by lowershipments to the European Union and China.
The last time the industrial production index, which measures manufacturing,electricity and mining output, showed a decline was in July last year.
Manufacturing and mining together account for 35 percent of Malaysia's grossdomestic product, which grew a surprisingly strong 5.4 percent in the secondquarter, helped by domestic demand and government spending.
The IPI for July 2012 was revised to 2.9 percent year-on-year from 1.4percent.
INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION INDEX (base 2005)
(in points; base year 2000=100)
August 2012 *July 2012110.4 111.2Pct change yr/yr -0.7 2.9mth/mth -0.7 -0.2SECTOR BREAKDOWN
(in points, unless otherwise stated)
August 2012 August 2012 *July 2012yr/yr (pct) mth/mth (pct) yr/yr (pct)Manufacturing -1.8 -4.5 6.0Electricity 2.7 -3.7 2.8Mining 1.6 12.4 -5.7
*Revised figures for July 2012
(Reporting by Anuradha Raghu; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
((anuradha.raghu@thomsonreuters.com, +603 2333 8040)(Reuters Messaging:anuradha.raghu.thomsonreuters.com@thomsonreuters.net))
Keywords: MALAYSIA ECONOMY/OUTPUT