Indonesia's Manufacturing Index Highest in 20 Months

INDUSTRY.co.id - Jakarta, The national manufacturing industry is showing an increasingly aggressive performance, with its efforts to increase expansion and employment.

This achievement is supported by the government's role in creating a conducive investment climate as well as providing business facilities for business actors in Indonesia.

"The government has launched several packages of economic policies, among them to improve the competitiveness of the industry, in addition to the deregulation and debottlenecking policies accompanied by ease of requirements and permits," said Minister of Industry of Airlangga Hartarto in Jakarta, Friday (2/3/2018).

Based on the purchasing manager index (PMI) report released by Nikkei and Markit, Indonesia's manufacturing PMI rose from 49.9 in January to 51.4 in February 2018.

PMI above 50 is again achieved, after earlier in December 2017 and January 2018 are below the neutral point.

A PMI above 50 indicates that manufacturing is expanding. In fact, Indonesia's manufacturing PMI performance in February 2018 also showed the highest position in its operational condition since June 2016 or 20 months ago.

"The increase in PMI can show confidence to the industrial sector to further expand and absorb a lot of manpower," said Minister of Industry.

Moreover, supported by a significant increase ease of doing business rank, from the rank of 106 in 2015 to 72 in 2017.