The country's manufacturing sales rose 4.9 percent in April from a year earlier to RM25.8 billion but were down 11 percent from March , official data showed today.

According to earlier data, March manufacturing sales rose 10 percent year-on-year to RM28.6 billion and 10.4 percent month-on-month.

In a statement, the Statistics Department said a total of 987,862 persons were employed in the manufacturing sector in April, up 2.3 percent year-on-year and 0.1 percent month-on-month.