KUALA LUMPUR, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's manufacturing sales grew 0.7 percent year on year to 146.2 billion ringgit (30.76 billion U.S. dollars) in February, official data showed Monday.
The Department of Statistics Malaysia said in a statement that the increase was supported by an expansion in the transport equipment and other manufactures at 7.3 percent, and the non-metallic mineral products, basic metal and fabricated metal products at 5.7 percent.
Meanwhile, the sales value of the electrical and electronics products sub-sector, which accounted for 34.1 percent of the total sales rose 1.3 percent.
On a month-on-month basis, the sales value of the manufacturing sector declined by 4.3 percent as against 152.7 billion ringgit recorded in January.
The sales value of export-oriented industries, which represented 69.6 percent of total sales declined by 1.3 percent in February, largely attributable to the continuous contraction in the manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products, which registered a negative growth of 8.8 percent.
As for the first two months of 2024, the sales value of the manufacturing sector climbed 1.9 percent year on year to 298.9 billion ringgit. (1 ringgit equals 0.21 U.S. dollar) ■
