The Minister of Industry (Menperin) Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita said that the contribution of industrial exports was the most dominant, which was 76.37% of the total national export value, which was at 66.14 billion US dollars in the first quarter of 2022. "The industrial sector has consistently been the biggest contributor to the achievement of national export values, in the midst of uncertain global economic conditions, especially the impact of the pandemic and the war between Russia and Ukraine," said Minister of Industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita in a statement in Jakarta, Tuesday. The export performance of the processing industry reached 50.52 billion US dollars in January-March 2022, or an increase of 29.68% compared to the achievement in the same period the previous year of 38.95 billion US dollars.
The Minister of Industry expressed his appreciation to manufacturing industry players in Indonesia who are increasingly enthusiastic about expanding their export markets, despite facing various current challenges. “This means that the industrial sector has shown its resilience and resilience. "Through the combination of a combination of fiscal and non-fiscal incentive facilities provided by the government, the performance of the industrial sector will be more brilliant and aggressive in the first quarter of 2022," he said. The Minister of Industry is optimistic that the industrial sector will become the main support in efforts to recover the national economy. One of the policies of the Ministry of Industry that remains focused on being implemented is the downstream industry to increase the added value of Indonesia's natural resources. "Amid the momentum of rising commodity prices, Indonesia needs to continue to accelerate the downstreaming of superior commodities. So that Indonesia's exports no longer come from upstream commodities, but rely on downstream commodities that have high added value," he explained. The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) noted that the trade balance during the first quarter of 2022 experienced a surplus of 9.33 billion US dollars.
A surplus also occurred in March 2022 of 4.53 billion US dollars, which continued the surplus trend since May 2020 or has occurred for 23 consecutive months. In fact, the national export performance in March 2022 managed to break a record high in history, with a recorded value of 26.50 billion US dollars. This figure is a significant increase of 29.42% compared to February 2022 (m-to-m) or 44.36% compared to March 2021 (y-on-y). This brilliant achievement cannot be separated from the contribution of the manufacturing industry sector. "In March 2022, the contribution of the industrial sector dominated by 72.69 percent of total national exports. The export value from the processing industry in March 2022 reached 19.26 billion US dollars, an increase of 23.99% (m-to-m) or 29.83% (y-on-y)," said the Minister of Industry. Meanwhile, the total value of national imports in March 2022 reached 21.97 billion US dollars with a growth of 32.02 percent (m-to-m) or 30.85 percent (y-on-y). The dominance and increase in imports of raw materials shows that Indonesia's imports are aimed at productive activities, in order to encourage national output, while the increase in capital goods shows that the manufacturing industry continues to encourage business expansion. "This is reflected in manufacturing activity which continues to be at an expansive level through the Indonesian Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) in March 2022 which was in position 51.3. This position is higher than the level of February 2022, which was 51.2, and is still continuing the expansion level for seven consecutive months," said Minister of Industry Agus. The increase in Indonesia's manufacturing PMI level was in line with the ASEAN Regional PMI which also experienced an expansion of 51.7. In addition, Indonesia's Manufacturing PMI in March was able to surpass South Korea's (51.2), Malaysia (49.6), China (48.1) and Russia (44.1).
