The Ministry Of Finance Is Optimistic That The National Economy Will Grow 5 Percent Thanks To Tariff Negotiations And EU'CEPA

Cooperation (Photo: dock. Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Director General of Economic and Fiscal Strategy of the Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu) Febrio Nathan Kacaribu expressed optimism for the prospect of Indonesia's economic growth in the second half of 2025.

He conveyed that one of the driving factors was the success of negotiating the import rate with the United States to 19 percent.

"Economic growth, especially with Trump tariffs, which we negotiate successfully from 32 percent, down to 19 percent. We see that in the second half of our exports will be quite more resilient so we see opportunities for economic growth to reach around 5 percent," Febrio told the media crew when met at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, Monday, July 21.

He added that this momentum opens up opportunities to encourage faster economic growth, between the success of the negotiating team resulting in relatively better agreements than many other countries.

On the other hand, Febrio also highlighted important developments in cooperation between Indonesia and the European Union through the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (EUCEPA) where after a 10-year negotiation process, an agreement was finally reached.

"With the President (Prabowo Subianto) meeting yesterday was a very historical deal too, it has been 10 years of agreement, finally we can deal and it will bring not only trade but also investment flows to Indonesia from the European Union, so this is the momentum that we will use for the second half of 2025," he said.

Febrio explained that Indonesia's exports to the European Union have been dominated by natural resource products, one of which is palm oil and through an agreement with CEPA, Indonesia can now increase the volume of palm oil exports to the European market, which is expected to be one of the drivers of national export growth.

Meanwhile, he conveyed that for the United States market, Indonesia's main export product is electronic equipment such as electronic routers and hopes that export trends to the US will continue.

In addition, he added that the textile, footwear, and furniture sectors also showed double-digit export growth in the first half of 2025, and this trend is expected to continue in the second half.

"Teman-teman pelaku usaha juga sangat menyambut baik tariff yang lebih rendah dibandingkan banyak negara lain tersebut sehingga ekspor yang sudah berjalan double digit di paruh pertama pertumbuhannya ke Amerika itu kita harapkan bisa berlanjut di paruh kedua 2025 ini. Jadi ini berita yang sangat positif, kita berharap kita bisa menggunakan momentum ini," pungkasnya.