Malaysia's Nov. manufacturing sales up 23%

Asian Economic News, Jan 22, 2001

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan. 16 Kyodo

Sales in Malaysia's manufacturing sector surged by 23.0% to 29.4 billion ringgit ($7.7 billion) last November compared to the 23.9 billion ringgit recorded in November 1999, the Statistics Department announced Tuesday.

The sales figures for November 2000, however, were 0.3% lower than the 29.5 billion ringgit registered in the previous month of October.

Total sales during the first 11 months of 2000 reached 304.9 billion ringgit, up by 31.2% from the 232.4 billion ringgit registered in the same period the year before.

At the end of November 2000, the manufacturing sector employed 1.04 million people, an increase of 8.5% from the same month of the previous year.

Total salaries and wages paid out also increased by 11.9% from 1.34 billion ringgit in November 1999 to 1.50 billion ringgit in November 2000.