IPI for February 2008 up 6.30%

KUALA LUMPUR, April 11 (Bernama) - The Industrial Production Index (IPI) for February 2008 rose 6.3 percent to 132.6 compared with 124.7 a year earlier, the Statistics Department said Friday.The higher index was attributed to increases recorded in all sectors, namely the electricity index which went up 7.6 percent to 149.3 from 138.7, the manufacturing index which gained 6.5 percent to 138.4 from 129.9 and the mining index which climbed 5.1 percent to 111.0 from 105.6, the department said.The increase in the manufacturing sector was driven by positive growth registered by industries, namely glass and glass products which rose 36.5 percent, processing of food, oils and fats (21.5 percent), and office, accounting and computing machinery (14.7 percent), it said in a statement.According to the department, the IPI for February 2008 fell 7.1 percent when compared with the index of 142.8 in the previous month.The drop, it said, was due to decreases recorded in the manufacturing sector which went down by 6.4 percent.