KUALA LUMPUR (XINHUA) – Malaysia’s manufacturing sector sales fell four per cent year on year to MYR147.4 billion (USD32.22 billion) in June, after recording a growth of 3.3 per cent in the preceding month, official data showed yesterday.
The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said in a statement that the decline was primarily influenced by the food, beverages and tobacco sub-sector, which decreased by 14.6 per cent, marking three consecutive months of double-digit declines.
The fall was also attributable to the contraction in the petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic (-12.4 per cent); and wood, furniture, paper products and printing (-1.1 per cent) sub-sectors.
On a month-on-month comparison, the sales value increased marginally by 0.4 per cent as against MYR146.8 billion recorded in May.
The sales value of export-oriented industries which accounted for 73 per cent of total sales, dropped by 7.4 per cent in June after registering a marginal increase of 0.1 per cent in May.
Domestic-oriented industries, however, continued to cushion the decline in sales value by sustaining a positive trajectory since September 2021, expanding by 6.8 per cent in June.
In the second quarter of 2023, the sales value of the manufacturing sector posted the first decrease since the second quarter of 2020 (-16.5 per cent), registering a negative one per cent as compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
The decrease was attributed to the food, beverages and tobacco sub-sector (-12.7 per cent); as well as the petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastics sub-sector (-4.8 per cent).
As for the first half, the sales value of the manufacturing sector reached MYR888.6 billion, expanded by 3.5 per cent as compared to the same period in the preceding year.
