Malaysia's manufacturing sales, a key component of the economy, fell 2.2 percent from a year earlier to 45.21 billion ringgit (13 billion dollars) in July, the government said Tuesday.

Lee Heng Guie, chief economist at CIMB Investment Bank, said the figures were not surprising given recent sluggish export data.

"The (manufacturing) numbers continue to disappoint us. They are not too encouraging for the first seven months of the year and point to a general slowdown for Malaysia in electrical and electronic exports," he said.

Lee said the data reflected concerns that an anticipated recovery in exports in the second half of this year is unlikely.

"We're concerned that the US economy is heading to a slowdown and maybe a mild recession which will have a knock-on effect on our economy," he said.

Manufacturing sales were 3.0 percent higher compared to June and for the seven months to July, rose 2.1 percent to 293.32 billion ringgit from the same period in 2006.

According to the official data released Tuesday, the increase in July from June was due to improvements in office, accounting and computing machinery, refined petroleum products and rubber products.