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xport was forecast to continue growing next year amid a trend of rising commodity prices and continued ease of doing business in Indonesia, and is expected to make a positive contribution to reaching Indonesia’s target of 5.4 percent economic growth in 2018.

The Finance Ministry’s fiscal policy head, Suahasil Nazara, said export and import has continued to increase as of the third quarter and will continue until next year.

“We see in the third quarter, export increased by 17 percent and import by 15 percent. This means there are economic activities going on. We hope this will continue [next year],” he told reporters on the sidelines of DBS Indonesia’s 2017 Asian Insights Conference on Tuesday.

“I think commodity [coal, crude palm oil] prices will remain steady but will slightly increase,” he added.

Central Statistics Agency (BPS) data showed that as of September, export had increased by 17.36 percent to US$123.4 billion and import by 13.97 percent to $112.49 billion.

Indonesia has set a target of a 5.6 percent increase in non-oil and gas export by 5.6 percent to $138.6 billion this year after falling by 0.34 percent last year mainly due to falling palm oil and coal prices.

Non-oil and gas export has increased by 17.27 percent to $111.9 billion in the first nine months.

Suahasil also cited several other factors that may contribute to boosting the sales and production of export-oriented firms, including internal economic reform through various economic policies and continued infrastructure building to simplifying business setup and cutting logistics costs.

“If we can make electricity distribution easier [for businesses], reduce dwelling time [at ports], faster business licensing, economic activities [including export] can run well,” he said.

No electricity price hike is scheduled this quarter and there are no definite plans for a price hike in the short term. However, many businesspeople in the textile, iron and steel industries have complained that the price of gas, a major component in their cost structure, remains too high.

Previously, International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff during the institution’s Article IV annual visit to the country on Nov. 12 has projected export to be a major economic mover for the country.

“Growth is projected at 5.1 percent in 2017 and 5.3 percent in 2018, led mainly by higher exports and investment,” IMF team leader Luis E. Breuer said as quoted on a statement released on the IMF website.

The Indonesian government has recently revised its 2017 year-end economic growth target to 5.17 percent from 5.2 percent.

University of Indonesia economist Chatib Basri shared a similar view, saying export would continue to grow and contribute to gross domestic product (GDP) growth on the back of rising commodity prices.

“I’m optimistic about 2018; commodity prices will continue to hike. The coal price has now increased to $90 per ton while 60 percent of our export are energy-related commodities, so export will increase too,” the former finance minister said at the DBS event.

While protectionism continues to rise globally, especially in the United States, the Indonesian government has vowed to continue creating new free trade agreements (FTAs), especially with nontraditional markets. Moreover, the government hopes to improve existing FTAs.

Indonesia expects to conclude four agreements by the year’s end, comprised of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with Australia, European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and Chile as well as the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) with Iran.

Moreover, the government hopes to conclude separate CEPAs with the European Union and Turkey, and also the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) with ASEAN and its six major trading partners.