The sales value of the manufacturing sector in Malaysia declined by 2 percent to 145 billion ringgit (31.44 billion U.S. dollars) in April, after registering a positive growth of 8 percent in March, the lowest since May 2020, official data showed Thursday. The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said in a statement that the fall came largely as a result of the bad performance in the sub-sectors of food, beverages and tobacco (-12.7 percent), transport equipment and other manufactures (-4.9 percent), and petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastics (-3.1 percent). In comparison with the previous month, the sales value returned to a decline with negative 7.2 percent as against an increase of 7.6 percent registered in March. The sales value of export-oriented industries, which accounted for 71.5 percent of the total sales, recorded a decrease of 3.4 percent in April. For the first four months of 2023, the sales value of the manufacturing sector rose by 5.5 percent to 594.4 billion ringgit (128.83 billion U.S. dollars) from a year earlier.