The Jakarta Post
Indonesia’s trade recovery this year hinges on the success of COVID-19 vaccination in the country and abroad after a deep export plunge in 2020. Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi said successful vaccination programs would allow advanced and emerging economies to return to normalcy in the second and fourth quarters of the year, respectively, at the latest. The Trade Ministry hopes exports will rebound 4.2 percent in real terms this year. Exports were down 10.82 percent year-on-year (yoy) in the third quarter of last year. “We believe that when the vaccinations are done, the economy will start moving,” Lutfi said during a virtual press conference on Monday. “We have been able to see [recoveries] in commodities such as soybeans and corn, whose prices have started to pick up on the international market as economies like China and other developed ones have started...