The Coincident Index (CI), a measure of current economic activity, decreased by 0.1% in September 2008 registering at 123.6 points. Negative change was recorded by Index of Industrial Production (-0.3%), real salaries & wages (-0.2%) and real sales in manufacturing sector (-0.1). The six-month smoothed growth rate of CI remain positive at 0.2% in the current month.

Consumer Price Index (CPI) for January to October 2008 increased by 5.5 per cent to 111.2 compared with that of 105.4 in the same period last year. Compared with that of the same month in 2007, the CPI for October 2008 registered an increase of 7.6 per cent from 106.1 to 114.2 and when compared with the previous month, the CPI recorded a decrease by 0.4 per cent. Among the contributing factor to this decline is the reduction in the price of petrol and diesel announced for the third time by the Government effective on 15th October 2008.

1. PRODUCTION

Production of natural rubber (NR) in September 2008 was recorded at 105,390 tonnes, an increase of 1.5% (1,545 tonnes) when compared with August 2008. Year-on-year, production recorded a increase of 1.8%. The smallholding sector contributed 94.6% of total production while the estate sector, the remaining 5.4%. Total production in the first nine months of 2008 amounted to 874,746 tonnes, a decrease of 4.6% when compared with the corresponding period in 2007.

The sales value of the Manufacturing sector in September, 2008 continued to post a growth of 9.2% (RM4.3 billion) year-on-year, to record RM51.0 billion. The corresponding growth in August, 2008 was 13.4% (revised). Month-on-month, the sales value increased by RM148.2 million or 0.3% as against RM50.9 billion reported in August, 2008.