KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 7): The Statistics Department said today Malaysia's industrial production index (IPI) decreased 0.4% in June 2020 from a year earlier due to the drop in the IPI's mining and electricity components.

The IPI's manufacturing segment, however, rose in the latest set of IPI data captured during the implementation of movement restriction policies in the country to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.  

In a statement today, the department said the IPI's mining and electricity components decreased 17.1% and 2.4% respectively. "Meanwhile, the manufacturing index recorded an increase of 4.7%," the department said.

The IPI, however, surged 26.2% in June 2020 from the preceding month. The department's chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said in the statement that the IPI surge as the government allowed more industries to resume operations from May 2020 onwards.

"Based on month-on-month comparison, the increment of IPI in June 2020 was due to the increase in all indices; index of manufacturing (36.8%), index of mining (2.4%) and index of electricity (0.2%),” Mohd Uzir said.

For the second quarter of 2020, the department said today the IPI recorded a significant decline of 17.9% from a year earlier.

"This decrease was due to the deterioration in all indices; mining index (-19.6%), manufacturing index (-18.1%) and electricity index (-10.8%)," he said.

Malaysia's Covid-19-driven restricted movement policy is initially known as the movement control order (MCO), which was gradually adjusted as the situation evolved.

Malaysia's MCO, which was initially scheduled between March 18 and 31, 2020, requires non-essential businesses to stop operations, while the public was ordered to stay at home to curb the Covid-19 outbreak.

On March 25, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the government decided to extend the MCO until April 14, because updates from the National Security Council and the Health Ministry indicated an increase in Covid-19 cases.

On April 10, Muhyiddin said the government was extending the MCO until April 28.

On April 23, Muhyiddin said the MCO would be extended for another two weeks until May 12.

On May 4, news reports, quoting Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, indicated that regulations under phase four of the MCO were null and void with the commencement of the conditional movement control order (CMCO) or phase five of the MCO.

On May 10, Muhyiddin said the CMCO would be extended to June 9.

On June 7, Muhyiddin said the CMCO scheduled to expire on June 9 will be replaced with the recovery movement control order (RMCO) beginning June 10 until Aug 31.