Manufacturing in Indonesia Expands Slightly in January on New Orders
Although China's HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) in January 2014 fell below the 50.0 mark thus indicating contracting manufacturing, other Asian countries, including Indonesia, posted expanding manufacturing. Indonesia's HSBC Manufacturing PMI read 51.0 in the first month of the year, its highest reading since June 2013 and up from 50.9 in December 2013. However, this limited expansion also raised concerns that the policy tightening of Indonesia's central bank (Bank Indonesia) has not been as effective as hoped for.
Su Sian Lim, economist at HSBC, said that "the surge in January 2014 new orders seemed to be driven by domestic demand rather than foreign demand, with new export orders still sluggish." New orders grew for the fourth successive month but foreign orders only showed the first growth since May 2013 with demand rising particularly from Asia, Europe and North America.
