Sales by manufacturing enterprises in the first quarter of this year dropped by €122.7 million or 22.6 percent when compared to the same period last year, a sample survey by the National Statistics Office has found. Jobs dropped by 898.

The NSO said the decrease was mainly due to the radio, TV and communication equipment and the chemicals and chemical [roducts sectors.

Lower sales were also registered by the rubber and plastic products, the medical, precision and optical instruments, the wearing apparel and clothes, and the electrical machinery and apparatus sectors.

During the period under review higher sales were registered by the other non-metallic mineral products, and the other transport equipment sectors.

Export orientated enterprises generated €313.5 million or 74.4 percent of the total sales for the quarter under review.

At the end of March employment in the sampled enterprises stood at 16,463, a decrease of 898 employees over the same period last year.

Lower employment levels were mainly recorded by the radio, TV and communicationequipment sector (-576 employees), followed by the rubber and plastic products and the publishing and printing sectors, (-236) and (-173), respectively.

Increases in employment were mainly recorded in the other transport equipment and the chemicals and chemical products sectors with increases of 272 and 64 employees, respectively.

During the period under review, investment by the sampled manufacturing enterprises amounted to €14.5 million, a decrease of €30.8 million compared to the first three months of 2008