Malaysian industrial output grows

Malaysian industrial output grew in January at its fastest annual pace in over three years on global electronics demand, confirming the economy's strength before elections that are expected to return the ruling coalition.
Output rose 16.7 percent in January from a year ago, beating a 14.2 percent forecast by a Reuters poll of economists last week.
January's expansion was the fastest since production rose 20.3 percent in the year to October 2000.
Economists said some factories had worked through the Chinese New Year holidays in January to cope with demand. The growth would have been even stronger in the seasonally unadjusted data if the holidays had been in February, as they were in 2003.
Output grew 14.7 percent in December 2003 from a year ago, revised upward in the latest set of data from an estimate of 13.5 percent earlier.
Malaysia's industrial production index measures manufacturing, mining and electricity output.
Economists said the economy's growing momentum, due to firmer world-wide electronics demand, was a timely boost for Malaysia's ruling coalition ahead of the March 21 national election.
"Some tech companies we spoke to did operate through the Chinese New Year break because of strong demand, for computer game machines for example," said Song Seng Wun, economist with GK Goh in Singapore.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi last week called for snap elections, capitalising on a robust domestic economy and opposition disarray.
His National Front coalition is widely-expected to win, but Abdullah needs a convincing win to seal his grip on power and dispel notions that he is one-term transitional leader.
Malaysia's economy is officially forecast to expand six to seven percent this year, after growing 5.2 percent in 2003.
Like other regional exporters, Malaysian factories are boosting production to meet rising global appetite for electronics.
In January, neighbouring Singapore's factory output jumped 18.1 percent from December and 5.8 percent from a year ago.
The Semiconductor Industry Association said last week global semiconductor sales rose 27.4 percent in January from a year earlier and were on track to grow more than 19 percent in 2004.