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 positive growth at 10.11 percent in the first quarter of 2020 amid the pressure caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita announced on April 21 that the sector posted a trade surplus of 1.7 billion USD in the period, with exports valued at 32.9 billion USD and imports at 31.2 billion USD.
Notably, the value represented 78.9 percent of the country’s total export turnover, with the biggest contributors including food industry (7.17 billion USD), basic metals industry (5.48 billion USD), chemicals (2.99 billion USD), and apparel (2.02 billion USD).
In March only, the export turnover from the manufacturing industry hit 11.12 billion USD and the import value was 10.80 billion USD, resulting in a surplus of 320 million USD.
There is a shift in export growth which was initially driven by CPO (crude palm oil) and its downstream products also textiles in 2019. In the first quarter of 2020, especially in March, both commodities were replaced by steel including precious metals, as well as paper and machinery, Agus said.
He is optimistic that Indonesia will be one of the countries to experience a fast recovery and record positive economic growth after the pandemic. This is based on the International Monetary Fund report, which states that Indonesia is one of the three countries in the world whose economic growth is predicted to remain positive in 2020./.
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