"Thank God, business players remain optimistic in the midst of the political atmosphere. We must believe that our manufacturing industry stands solid and wields a high level of resilience," he remarked during an event held by his office in Jakarta on Thursday.
Kartasasmita noted that Indonesia's score in the Industrial Confidence Index (ICI) had never fallen to below 50 since the launch of the index in 2022, noting that the score stood at 52.35 points in January this year, an increase of 1.03 points as compared to that recorded in December 2023.
Kartasasmita highlighted that the country's score in the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) had also been consistently above 50.
"We should be proud of the fact Indonesia and India are the only countries that manage to maintain their PMI score above 50 points for 29-30 consecutive months. Indonesia's PMI score was registered at 52.2 points in December 2023 and currently stands at 52.9," he noted.
The minister deemed the increases in the scores of the two indexes as interesting, considering that business players tend to pull the brakes and opt to take a waiting stance amid election agendas.
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"The performance of Indonesia's manufacturing industry truly is something we can be proud of," he remarked.
According to the Ministry of Industry, the ICI score released in January is based on the performance of 23 sub-sectors. The score assessment takes into account the expansion of rate and number of new orders, production, and availability of products.
