This picture taken on Jan 11, 2017 shows a truck leaving the main gate of the Ford automotive plant in the northern province of Hai Duong. (HOANG DINH NAM / AFP)
Asia’s manufacturing activity rebounded in September after COVID-19’s grip on several countries loosened, allowing the easing of lockdown measures that had crippled factories.
Manufacturing purchasing managers’ indexes gained across Southeast Asia, which is recovering from one of the world’s worst outbreaks.
Indonesia surged past the 50 mark that divides contraction from expansion with an 8.5 percentage point jump, its biggest one-month increase since June 2020. Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines all improved, while only Vietnam was unchanged at 40.2. India rose to 53.7, its third month of expansion.
Manufacturing purchasing managers’ indexes gained across Southeast Asia, which is recovering from one of the world’s worst outbreaks
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Japan and trade bellwether South Korea stayed safely in expansion territory last month. India rose to 53.7, its third month of expansion.
Southeast Asia has seen a decline in its COVID-19 caseload and death toll as countries raced to get their populations vaccinated and stringent movement restrictions helped slow the spread of the highly-infectious Delta variant.
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While Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines still sit at the bottom of Bloomberg’s latest COVID-19 Resilience Ranking, their governments have started relaxing some of the movement restrictions that disrupted factory production to throw their economies a much-needed lifeline.