KL manufacturing sales rise 13.5%

KL manufacturing sales rise 13.5%

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Malaysia's manufacturing sales rose
13.5 percent to 29.4 billion ringgit (US$7.7 billion) in February
compared to the same month last year, the government announced on
Friday.

But on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, manufacturing sales
eased 0.7 percent from January, the Department of Statistics
said.

The on-year data exceeded market expectations of a rise of
between 8 percent and 11 percent.

Economists didn't expect the on-year February figures to be as
strong as January's because of a high base effect, but they said
manufacturing sales would continue to show solid gains due to
robust export and industrial output figures in that month.

The February data follow January's 11.6 percent on-year rise.

At the end of February, 3.5 percent more people were employed
in the manufacturing sector than a year earlier, boosting workers
in the sector to 974,394, the statistics agency said. But the
sector's work force contracted 0.4 percent from the end of
January. -- AP