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Indonesia sees first annual import growth in 20 months as manufacturing picks up
Imports jumped as manufacturers bought raw materials and new machinery to resume production.
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Business as usual: Workers assemble Isuzu Traga trucks at an Isuzu factory in East Karawang, West Java, on Aug. 3, 2020. Manufacturing has remained the backbone of Indonesia’s economy during the pandemic. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
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ndonesia has recorded its first annual import growth since July 2019, indicating a sign of recovery in factory activity and manufacturing investment, following last year’s economic downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Statistics Indonesia (BPS) reported Monday the value of Indonesia’s imports was up 14.86 percent year-on-year (yoy) to US$13.26 billion in February, ending the trend of negative growth since July 2019. The country’s import value fell 6.49 percent annually in January 2021.
BPS head Suhariyanto said the growth signaled a rebound in the country’s manufacturing sector given the large share of raw materials and capital goods in domestic imports.
“Bearing in mind our import structure, where 75 percent is raw materials, the import movement, so to speak, is satisfying as it indicates the revival of industries and, later, of investments,” Suhariyanto said in a virtual presser on Monday.
Aside from raw materials, capital goods contributed 16.23 percent of Indonesia’s February imports and consumer goods contributed the remaining 9.2 percent.
The COVID-19 pandemic battered Indonesia’s trade activity last year, leading imports to nosedive 42.23 percent yoy and exports 29.15 percent yoy in May 2020, the sharpest plunge in at least eight years, as major cities began imposing large-scale social restrictions (PSBB).
Read also: Indonesia's exports, imports nosedive in May as COVID-19 restrictions hit trade
