Indonesia's Trade Balance Surplus For 25 Consecutive Months, Said Coordinating Minister Airlangga

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto. (Photo: ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto said that Indonesia's continued trade balance surplus in May 2022 is a powerful asset and ammunition to support external sector resilience amid the ongoing economic recovery.

The trade balance last month managed to print a surplus of 2.89 billion US dollars and made a surplus trend for 25 consecutive months since May 2020.

"We need to be grateful for the trade balance performance which has recorded a surplus again," said Airlangga, quoted from Antara, Wednesday, June 15.

As one of the measures to maintain a trade balance surplus, the government continues to encourage the expansion of export markets to various countries.

In May 2022, Airlangga said Indonesia's largest export destination was China with a value of 4.59 billion US dollars or 22.95 percent of total exports, followed by India at 2.26 billion US dollars (11.27 percent) and the United States at 2.05 billion US dollars (10.26 percent).

"The government will continue to strengthen bilateral and multilateral cooperation to expand market access for various quality products made by local children, including the G20 Forum and various other international cooperation forums that will continue to be optimized media to achieve this goal," he said.

The trade balance surplus that continues to be maintained, he said, is of course supported by increasingly resilient export performance. In May 2022, the value of Indonesia's exports reached US$21.51 billion, or double-digit growth of 27 percent compared to the same period last year (yoy).

In fact, the cumulative value of Indonesia's exports during the period January to May 2022 has reached US$114.97 billion or grew significantly by 36.34 percent (ctc).

In addition, Indonesia's export structure, which is dominated by the industrial sector at 65.73 percent, also indicates a healthy prospect for future trade performance with high added value.

"To spur the added value of exports, the acceleration of the downstream program for leading commodities will continue to be accelerated. This program will not only boost national output but will also absorb as much labor as possible," said Airlangga.

He added, imports in May 2022 were recorded at 18.61 billion US dollars or managed to grow 30.74 percent (yoy).

Observing global dynamics that will still be full of challenges in the future, in synergy with Bank Indonesia (BI), the government will optimize the use of local currency cooperation in Local Currency Settlement (LCS) as part of external risk mitigation efforts.

To realize these efforts, on Wednesday, BI together with the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Financial Services Authority, KADIN, APINDO, and the ACCD Bank Association have launched the National LCS Task Force as a form of synergy and collaboration in accelerating LCS development.