Indonesia: Processing Industry Boosts Export Value

• Jan 17, 2017

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) announced a trade surplus of US$8.78 billion in 2016. This is an increase from 2015’s surplus of US$7.7 billion. According to the agency, the processing industry served as the backbone of last year’s trade, contributing 76 percent of the total exports value.

BPS chief head said that although most of the processing industry players raised their production, the price of goods continues to rise. He refers to the value of CPO-based mineral fuels that jumped 9.0 percent to US$1.69 billion in December, “although production is stagnant,” he said on Monday, January 16. 

At the end of the year, BPS recorded a trade surplus of US$990 million. Despite the overall surplus, Suhariyanto said there were deficits in the oil and gas as well as agriculture balance.

“The price of raw commodities has not improved,” he said.

BPS recorded a deficit of US$ 300 million in the export value of agricultural products like coffee, pepper, seaweed, and fresh fish, compared to last year.

Suhariyanto also mentioned the sluggish global economy that weakened export demand weakened, as well as the lack of market expansion for Indonesian products in countries outside the United States, China, and countries in Southeast Asia.

Other than palm oil, the trade of machinery and mechanical devices, iron and steel, recorded a transaction decline of 17-28 percent at the end of 2016.

Although the price is slowly rising, Indonesia can no longer rely on oil-gas and mining commodities, as they only accounted for 9.0 percent and 12.5 percent to the total export value.

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Darmin Nasution said the trade surplus is a sign of economic improvement. Darmin believes that imports will rebound in the near future, following the government’s spending activities in the start of 2017. “Global trading is showing a tendency for improvement,” he said.

Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/news/2017/01/17/056836786/Processing-Industry-Boosts-Export-Value