Malaysia among five ASEAN nations to have improved PMI in December 2021

IHS Markit yesterday said Malaysia's manufacturing PMI rose to 52.8 in December 2021 from 52.3 in November, indicating a stronger improvement in the health of the sector.

As a result, the average performance over the final quarter was the strongest quarterly performance since the survey began in 2012, it said.

Regionally, it said the ASEAN manufacturing conditions continued to improve sharply during December.

"Output and new orders expanded again, with the pace of growth in the former nearing October's peak.

"Ongoing supply constraints contributed to more intense inflationary pressures, however, as the rates of both cost and output price inflation accelerated in the month and remained among the strongest on record," it said in a research note today.

The headline PMI remained well above the neutral 50.0 level in December, signalling a third successive monthly improvement in the health of the ASEAN manufacturing sector.

Moreover, rising from 52.3 in November to 52.7 in December, the latest reading was indicative of an accelerated pace of improvement that was the second fastest on record.

The growth was led by Singapore, where the headline PMI hit an all-time high of 58.0 (joint with April 2013) and signalled a rapid overall upturn while Indonesia recorded a fourth straight monthly improvement in conditions.

The PMI (53.5) dipped further from October's peak, but nonetheless pointed to a sharp rate of expansion.

Elsewhere, both Malaysia and Vietnam reported stronger upturns during December.

In Malaysia, the PMI ticked up to an eight-month high of 52.8 and signalled a strong improvement in the health of the sector, while Vietnam's headline reading (52.5) was also the highest since last May.