Government Alerts The Impact Of Manufacturing Suspension In Trade Partner Countries

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Ministry of Finance)

Head of the Fiscal Policy Agency (BKF) of the Ministry of Finance, Febrio Kacaribu, stated that the government continues to monitor the development of the manufacturing sector that occurs in trading partner countries in order to maintain export performance.

According to him, this effort is an important step to ensure that the economic condition in Indonesia remains stable.

Febrio explained that until now the influence of the slowdown in the manufacturing sector has not had a major impact.

"Although the purchasing managers index (PMI) of several major trading partner countries such as China are still in the contraction zone, exports are still growing high earlier this year," he said in a written statement on Thursday, February 16.

VOI noted that a number of countries that are now in the manufacturing contraction zone (lower than 50) are Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, South Korea, to the United States.

"In the future, the government will remain aware of the potential pressure from the global economic slowdown, as reflected in the contraction of the Manufacturing PMI of trading partner countries," he said.

Febrio explained that non-oil and gas exports to China still recorded growth of 25.2 percent year on year (yoy) in January 2023 from total non-oil and gas exports which rose by 49.4 percent.

Meanwhile, in general, the export value until last month was known to be 22.3 billion US dollars.

That figure grew 16.3 percent compared to the same period the previous year.

Meanwhile, for imports, it is said that it rose slightly by 1.2 percent yoy to 18.4 percent.

"The growth of all types of imports that are consistently positive in all types shows that domestic production activities continue to be expansive in line with Indonesia's Manufacturing PMI indicators which increased in January," he said.

For the development of these exports, the trade balance in January 2023 recorded a surplus of US $ 3.87 billion.

"The export and import performance in January continued the trade balance surplus for up to 33 consecutive months since May 2020," he said.

Febrio added that the trade balance surplus at the beginning of this year was a good start in strengthening the resilience of the national economy in facing global challenges ahead.

"The government will continue to strive to improve the competitiveness of export products, including through the push for downstreaming of natural resources, as well as encouraging diversification of export destination countries, including to potential countries," he concluded.