(AFP) The manufacturing sales in March fell 1.1 percent year-on-year, according to figures released today, as the impact of the US slowdown on the export-driven economy began to bite.

The Statistics Department said in a statement the year-on-year fall was the first since February 1999.

March sales, which totalled RM27.4 billion, were up 3.8 percent from the previous month.

Figures released earlier this month show that manufacturing production shrank by almost 10 percent in the first quarter of this year compared with the previous quarter.

Economists said at the time the sharper than expected decline was mainly due to falling demand for electronics products in the crucial US market.

Almost 21 percent of all Malaysia's exports go to the United States, making it vulnerable to the slowing economy there.

Last month the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research cut its gross domestic product forecast for this year to four percent from five percent based on a sharper US slowdown, the highly uncertain external environment and the continuing weak Japanese economy.