The growth of the country's overall industry output slowed last year to 5.15 percent from 5.27 percent in 2006, far below the government's target of 6.31 percent, the government said.
Speaking to a House of Representatives commission overseeing trade and industry, Industry Minister Fahmi Idris blamed the slowdown on pressures triggered by higher crude oil prices.
"In 2007, our national industry was facing many difficulties, such as the increase of oil and energy prices, which eventually led to the increase in prices of agricultural commodities like soybeans, wheat, corn and crude palm oil," he said.
Contributing the most to the drop, he said, were two industry sectors: textiles, leather and footwear products -- shrinking by 3.68 percent -- and timber and wood products which shrunk 1.74 percent.
Among sectors growing but not as fast were food, beverage and tobacco -- with 5.05 percent growth compared to 7.22 in 2006 -- and metals, with a growth of 1.69 percent, down from 4.73 percent in 2006.
Meanwhile, the sectors with fastest growth were paper and printed products with 5.79 percent, fertilizer, chemical and rubber products with 5.69 percent, cement and other non-metal mined products with 3.4 percent, and transportation equipment, machinery and tools with 9.73 percent.
In 2008 the ministry targets a total output growth of 7.43 percent by year-end, foreseeing a significant contribution toward that goal coming from the transportation, machinery and equipment sector, expected to expand by 9.6 percent.
The slowest growth, Fahmi said, would likely to come from wood and forestry products with only one percent growth.(uwi)
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