Manufacturing sales in Malaysia, a key component of the economy, rose 2.6 percent from a year earlier to 43.78 billion ringgit (13 billion dollars) in June, the government said Friday.

The increase was due to higher sales in the chemicals and the iron and steel groups, the Statistics Department said in a statement.

Manufacturing sales rose 3.2 percent from May.

For the first six months to June, total manufacturing sales were 2.9 percent higher at 247.97 billion ringgit.