JAKARTA: Indonesia's domestic cement sales, an indicator of economic growth in Southeast Asia's top economy, rose 15.2 percent in January from a year earlier, data from leading producer PT Semen Gresik showed on Monday.
According to the firm's website, the country's sales volumes in January reached 4.06 million tonnes, slightly lower than 4.6 million tonnes a month earlier.
Infrastructure development and cement sales are likely to be spurred by the central bank last week cutting its benchmark rate to a record low 5.75 percent, and by the parliament in December passing a long-awaited land bill aimed at speeding up land acquisition.
"January 2012 domestic volumes are on target to meet our full year 2012 estimate of 53 million tonnes, up 11 percent year-on-year, helped by continued low interest rates, resilient GDP growth and multiplier effects from the land clearing law," said Bahana Securities in a note.
The country's cement sales fluctuate from month to month depending on a variety of factors, including religious holidays, which can delay construction, and the government's end-of-year project completion deadlines.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.