COVID-19 forces Indonesia’s manufacturing activities to sharply decline
Indonesia’s manufacturing activities fell off a cliff in March as the government imposed stricter measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19, a survey has showed.
Jakarta (VNA) - Indonesia’smanufacturing activities fell off a cliff in March as the government imposedstricter measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19, a survey has showed.
ℱ Accordingto IHS Markit, Indonesia’s Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) slumped to 45.3, theworst in the survey's nine-year history.
Under stricter antivirus measures, demand weakened sharply atthe end of the first quarter, the survey stated. Meanwhile, new business inflows fell at the fastest rate inthe series history, dragged down by a plunge in export sales. At the same time, factory shutdowns led to a marked drop inproduction, with output also falling at a record rate, according to the survey. Manufacturing made up around 19 percent of the country’s grossdomestic product (GDP) in the fourth quarter of 2019, Statistics Indonesia(BPS) data showed. The government has projected the local economy to grow at thelowest level since 1999 of 2.3 percent this year under the baseline scenario,or expand by 0.4 percent in the worst-case scenario if the pandemic stilllingers on. While it has yet to impose a lockdown, the Indonesian governmentin mid-March called on citizens to stay at home to curb the pandemic. This hasdisrupted business activities and hit people’s purchasing power as a sizeableproportion of the workforce was forced to take unpaid leave or even laid off./.
The Ministry of Health of Malaysia announced on April 3 that the country recorded an additional 217 cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing its total number of confirmed cases to 3,333.
Indonesia on April 4 confirmed 106 new patients of the acute respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), bringing the total number in the Southeast Asian country to 2,092.
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A corner of Jakarta, Indonesia (Source: AFP/VNA) 
