Indonesia’s manufacturing still grows strongly amid COVID-19 outbreak
Indonesia’s manufacturing industry kept positive growth at 10.11 percent in the first quarter of 2020 amid the pressure caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Indonesia’s manufacturing industry kept positive growth at 10.11 percent in Q1 - Illustrative image (Photo: Privacy)
Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesia’s manufacturing industry kept positivegrowth at 10.11 percent in the first quarter of 2020 amid the pressure causedby the COVID-19 pandemic.
Industry MinisterAgus Gumiwang Kartasasmita announced on April 21 that the sector posted a tradesurplus of 1.7 billion USD in the period, with exports valued at 32.9 billionUSD and imports at 31.2 billion USD.
Notably, the valuerepresented 78.9 percent of the country’s total export turnover, with thebiggest contributors including food industry (7.17 billion USD), basic metalsindustry (5.48 billion USD), chemicals (2.99 billion USD), and apparel (2.02billion USD).
In March only, the exportturnover from the manufacturing industry hit 11.12 billion USD andthe import value was 10.80 billion USD, resulting in a surplus of 320 millionUSD.
There is a shift inexport growth which was initially driven by CPO (crude palm oil) and itsdownstream products also textiles in 2019. In the first quarter of 2020,especially in March, both commodities were replaced by steel includingprecious metals, as well as paper and machinery, Agus said.
He is optimisticthat Indonesia will be one of the countries to experience a fast recovery andrecord positive economic growth after the pandemic. This is based on theInternational Monetary Fund report, which states that Indonesia is one of the threecountries in the world whose economic growth is predicted to remain positive in2020./.
Indonesia's economy is likely to begin recovering in the last quarter of 2020 before the growth accelerates in 2021 with an expected expansion of between 4.5 and 5.5 percent, according to Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati.
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The Ministry of Commerce reported that imports also rose 18% to 29.9 billion USD during the same period, resulting in a trade surplus of 1.1 billion USD. In May alone, Thailand posted a 4.6 billion USD trade surplus with the US and a 4.1 billion USD trade deficit with China.
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Indonesia’s manufacturing industry kept positive growth at 10.11 percent in Q1 - Illustrative image (Photo: Privacy) 
