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Govt to issue new policy after November’s poor trade data
The government will issue a new policy to boost exports after Statistics Indonesia (BPS) announced a US$ 2.05 billion trade deficit in November, the largest recorded in the last five years.
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Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution (JP/Wienda Parwitasari)
T
he government will issue a new policy to boost exports after Statistics Indonesia (BPS) announced a US$ 2.05 billion trade deficit in November, the largest recorded in the last five years, according to Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution.
“We will soon arrange the draft of new policy along with other ministries, particularly the Industry Ministry,” Darmin said at the Communications and Information Ministry in Jakarta on Monday as reported by kompas.com.
However, he declined to comment further on the new policy, nor was he able to guarantee that it would result in a trade surplus in December and January.
He conceded that the November deficit has been triggered by the failure to boost exports, particularly jewelry.
The BPS previously announced that the trade deficit had been the result of a $1.46 billion monthly deficit in oil and gas trade despite declining oil prices, both in international indexes and the Indonesia Crude Price (ICP), which set the oil price at $62.98 per barrel in November from $77.56 per barrel the month before.
Month-to-month (mtm) imports in November decreased 4.47 percent to $16.88 billion, while mtm exports declined 6.7 percent to $14.83 billion, thanks to a 10.8 percent mtm decrease in oil and gas exports to $1.37 billion. The results have brought the year-to-date trade balance to minus $7.52 billion. (bbn)
