Indonesia's Manufacturing PMI Dips Slightly to 52.7 in February 2024

S&P Global data shows that Indonesia's manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) stood at 52.7 points in February 2024. This figure remains in the expansionary category.

However, the figure fell slightly by 0.2 points from January 2024, which was 52.9 points. Despite this, the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) continues to appreciate the efforts of Indonesian manufacturing industry players.

“We highly appreciate the Indonesian manufacturing industry players who still have high confidence in running their businesses impressively amidst the still unstable global economic and political situation,” said Minister of Industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita in a statement on the Ministry of Industry website on Friday (1/3/2024).

Agus remains optimistic that the national economy is still quite resilient, even though developed countries are experiencing recessions, such as Japan and the UK. Economic strengthening is in line with the positive performance of the manufacturing industry, which is the largest contributor to national GDP.

“Therefore, more attention is needed to improve the performance of the manufacturing industry sector through strategic policies,” he said.

One initiative proposed by Agus is that the implementation of a certain natural gas price (HGBT) can be utilized more broadly by the industrial sector. According to him, the current HGBT of USD 6 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) only targets seven industrial sectors.

These seven sectors are fertilizer, petrochemical, oleochemical, steel, ceramic, glass, and rubber gloves. Therefore, Agus encourages all industrial sectors to obtain competitive gas prices.

Agus also notes that there are 24 industrial sub-sectors that require gas as a raw material and support in their production processes.

“I request an expansion because that's what we want, and gas prices are key to the competitiveness of our industrial products so that they can have higher added value,” he said.

(Also read: [ASEAN Manufacturing PMI Early 2024, Indonesia Considered Strong](https://databoks.katadata.co.id/datapublish/2024/02/28/pmi-manufaktur-asean-awal-2024-indonesia-tergolong-kuat))