Malaysia's Industrial Production Index (IPI) for February dropped by 0.2 percent to 123 on a year-on-year basis, the Department of Statistics said Monday.

"The lower index was due to a decline in the mining sector by 0. 7 percent (to 105.6 from 106.3) and the manufacturing sector by 0. 1 percent (to 127.4 from 127.5)," the department said in its preliminary IPI release.

The electricity index, however, increased marginally by 0.2 percent to 139.2, it said.

Compared with January this year, the IPI dropped by 7.2 percent due to lower indices recorded in all the three sectors.

The mining index was down 9.9 percent, the electricity index declined by 9.8 percent and the manufacturing index moved down by 6.1 percent.

During the first two months this year, the IPI expanded by 1.1 percent to 127.7 compared with the same period last year.

The IPI is a measure of the rate of change in the production of industrial commodities in real terms over time. These commodities are obtained from the manufacturing, mining and electricity sectors.

Source: Xinhua