Indonesian Manufacturing Is More Comfortable In The Expansive Zone, March's Notes Are More Aggressive

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA The national manufacturing industry sector has sharpened its positive record at the close of the first quarter of this year by recording manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) at the level of 51.9 as of March 2023. The score strengthened compared to February 2023 which was 51.2.

Responding to this, Head of the Fiscal Policy Agency (BKF) of the Ministry of Finance Febrio Kacaribu said the domestic demand level is indicated to continue to increase, supporting manufacturing production activities amid export demand which is still relatively restrained.

"In addition, improvements in distribution and logistics have also continued to improve in the last two months so as to encourage domestic production activities," he said in an official statement on Tuesday, April 4.

According to Febrio, this expansive manufacturing industry reflects the strong economy in the midst of a global situation that is still overshadowed by deceleration and uncertainty trends.

"The strengthening of the Manufacturing PMI index also indicates the optimism of business actors in seeing the potential of the domestic economy in the short term," he said.

Sri Mulyani's subordinate explained that Indonesia and India are two of the few Asian countries that have experienced an increasing trend of manufacturing PMIs. Meanwhile, PMI India is at the level of 56.4 from the previous 55.3 in February.

Then for Thailand and the Philippines, although slowing down is still in the expansionary zone with each level 53.1 and 52.5.

Meanwhile, Vietnam is perched at 47.7 and Malaysia has contracted 48.8. Likewise with Japan, which was 49.2 and Korea 47.6, which continued to be in the contraction zone throughout the first quarter.

Then for the largest economy in Asia, namely China, it is relatively stagnant at level 50. The government will continue to maintain stability ahead of Eid, "concluded the Head of BKF Febrio Kacaribu.