Malaysia's Industrial Production Index (IPI) for March declined 2.7 percent to 135.2 compared with the same period last year, local press reported Wednesday.

"The decrease was due to the lower indices recorded in the mining and manufacturing sectors by 5.1 percent (116.1 from 122.3) and 2.5 percent (139.3 from 142.9) respectively," the Department of Statistics said in a statement.

The electricity index, however, posted an increase of 2.5 percent to settle at 162.1, the department said Tuesday.

On a month-on-month basis, the IPI for March grew by 8.7 percent, with expansion in the indices of all three sectors.

For the first quarter this year, the IPI reached 130.7, registering a marginal increase of 0.1 percent year on year and a decrease of 3.6 percent quarter-on-quarter.

The IPI is the 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.