Sales of buses (those used for commercial purposes) are growing sharply in Indonesia so far in 2017 and this gives a positive signal to factories. In fact, growth of bus sales, by far, outpaces growth of the whole automotive sector in the first couple of months of 2017. While total sales in Indonesia's automotive sector grew by a modest 5.72 percent year-on-year (y/y) to 282,596 units in the January-March 2017 period, sales of buses grew 30.43 percent (y/y) to 840 in the first four months of 2017.

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Use of digital cash in transactions of ride-hailing and logistics services providers Grab and Go-Jek is becoming increasingly important. The management of Grab stated that cashless transactions (using smartphones tied to mobile payment systems) are now contributing more than half of the total value of transactions of Grab. Since the introduction of GrabPay, the value of cashless transactions recorded double-digit growth every month.

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Inflation continued to rise in Indonesia in May 2017 but at a slower pace than expected. According to the latest data from Indonesia's Statistics Agency (BPS), the annual inflation rate rose to 4.33 percent (y/y) in May, up from 4.17 percent (y/y) in the preceding month. The May inflation figure is the highest in 14 months. On a monthly basis Indonesian inflation was recorded at 0.39 percent (m/m) in May 2017.

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Growth of manufacturing activity in Indonesia eased in May 2017. The Nikkei Indonesia Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) dropped to 50.6 in May from a reading of 51.2 in the preceding month. Last month manufacturing activity in Indonesia had hit a 10-month high, hence the lower reading indicates a loss of growth momentum for Indonesia's manufacturing sector. However, it remained comfortably above the boom-or-bust line of 50.0 that separates expansion from contraction.

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