Malaysian manufacturing sales in August rose 3.6 percent from a year earlier to RM28.38 billion(US$7.47 billion) but fell 0.1 percent from July, the Statistics Department said today.

For the first eight months of the year, manufacturing sales increased 9.1 percent to RM219.15 billion, according to preliminary figures released by the department.

August is the the second consecutive month that sales have has breached the 28 billion ringgit mark and economists are hopeful that this trend will continue untill end of the year.

Full year growth

"If this trend of monthly sales of at least RM28 billion persists during the remaining four months of this year, we can expect to see a full year growth exceeding 7.5 percent.

"What we are seeing now is consistency in growth performance in manufacturing output and sales simultaneously. Now, concern about huge unwanted stockpiles is reduced," said Azrul Azwar, economist with MIDF Sisma Securities.

According to preliminary figures released last month, manufacturing sales in July rose 7.3 percent from a year earlier to RM28.1 billion and were up 1.4 percent from June. - AFP