Indonesia's Export-Import Slows Down, Trade Surplus Maintained: Minister Sri Mulyani

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati revealed that until the end of June 2023, the export and import of Indonesia slowed down. Indonesia's export contracted by 21.2% from last year at US$20.61 billion.

"The export values were high two years in a row in 2021 and 2022 since the prices of commodities soared and Indonesia was able to maintain the export," said Sri Mulyani in a press conference live-streamed on the Ministry of Finance official YouTube account on Monday, July 24, 2023.

Sri Mulyani believed that since the global economy slowed down, the request for export also decreased while the prices of commodities were corrected, thus making the export growth decrease from double-digit growth to a contraction.

Meanwhile, imports also decreased by 18.3%. According to the minister, since the manufacturing industry is export-oriented, the demand was also affected.

"We see that the trade balance until June 2023 is still in surplus. Despite the contraction of export and import and how the export is higher than the import," said Sri Mulyani. The trade balance reached a surplus of US$3.45 billion in June alone. Meanwhile, accumulatively, Indonesia reached a surplus of US$19.93 billion.

"This is an achievement since we maintained a surplus for 38 consecutive months," she said. "This will affect our external balance."

MOH. KHORY ALFARIZI

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