KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 10 — Malaysia's Industrial Production Index (IPI) grew 7.4 per cent in December 2014 compared with the same month a year ago.

“The increase was due to positive growth in all indices of manufacturing (7.8 per cent), mining (6.9 per cent) and electricity (3.0 per cent),” the Statistics Department said today.

The IPI in November 2014, however, was revised to 4.8 per cent, year-on-year.

On a month-on-month basis, in seasonally adjusted terms, the IPI in December 2014 increased by 2.0 per cent due to increases in the manufacturing (3.6 per cent) and electricity (0.1 per cent) indices.

The department said manufacturing output recorded strong growth by 7.8 per cent, year-on-year, for December 2014 after an increase of 3.9 per cent in November last year.

The sub-sectors which contributed to the increase in December 2014 were electrical and electronic products (18.3 per cent); petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products (5.2 per cent); and non-metallic mineral products, basic metal and fabricated metal products (4.1 per cent).

In the mining sector, output increased 6.9 per cent compared with the same month in 2013 due to the increase in crude oil index (12 per cent) and natural gas index (1.4 per cent).

The electricity sector's output recorded an increase of 3.0 per cent, year-on-year for the month under review.

For the fourth quarter, the IPI expanded 5.8 per cent compared with the same quarter of the previous year, due to the rise in manufacturing (4.9 per cent), mining (8.6 per cent) and electricity (3.2 per cent) indices. — Bernama