KUALA LUMPUR: The seasonally adjusted SandP Global Malaysia manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) was at 49.9 in June 2024. SandP Global Market Intelligence economics director Andrew Harker said June was largely a month of stability for Malaysian manufacturers, following on from the growth seen in May. Encouragingly, firms were again able to bring in greater volumes of new work, but there were still some reports of demand remaining muted. As such, manufacturers were happy to keep their output and employment levels unchanged, he said. 'Cost inflation was also stable, although firms were more willing to raise their own selling prices than has been the case for some time. 'Taking the second quarter as a whole, the PMI data have represented an improvement relative to the opening part of the year, boding well for upcoming official data prints,' he said in a statement today. The PMI reading for May 2024 was 50.2. SandP Global Malaysia said the increase in overall new business in part reflected susta ined growth of new export orders, which rose for the third month running. Firms reported higher new orders from customers in a range of Asia Pacific destinations, including Australia, the Philippines and Vietnam, it said. 'New order growth is expected to be sustained over the coming year, supporting optimism regarding the outlook for manufacturing production,' it added. Source: BERNAMA News Agency