KUALA LUMPUR, May 8 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's manufacturing sector sales value increased by 4 percent year-on-year to 475.6 billion ringgit (111.47 billion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter, official data showed Thursday.

The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said in a statement that the sales value of the manufacturing sector rose 3.7 percent year-on-year to 164.3 billion ringgit in March.

The growth in sales value within the manufacturing sector was mainly driven by the food, beverages & tobacco subsector, which recorded a strong growth of 11.8 percent in March.

This was followed by the electrical & electronics products, non-metallic mineral products, basic metal & fabricated metal products subsectors, which were 7.4 percent and 4 percent, respectively.

Compared to the preceding month, the sales value also increased by 7.3 percent to 164.3 billion ringgit, as against 153.1 billion ringgit recorded in the preceding month.

The sales value of export-oriented industries, which represented 70.9 percent of total sales, expanded by 4.6 percent in March.

Meanwhile, the domestic-oriented industries grew by 1.8 percent in March. (1 ringgit equals 0.23 U.S. dollars)