Exports grows by 25.74% as of February

Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Boosted by higher oil prices and increasing global demands for non-oil and gas commodities, Indonesia's exports for the first two months of the year rose by more than a quarter from the same period last year.

The latest reports on economic data by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) showed on Friday that January-February exports in 2005 stood at US$12.5 billion, a 25.74 percent increase from the $9.9 billion posted in the corresponding period.

The healthy figure has boosted optimism on the part of the government that it can meet its full-year target of $75.9 billion, or even surpass it.

"We are saying this because we are in fact seeing an increase in investments in the country for export-oriented purposes," said Coordinating Minister for the Economy Aburizal Bakrie, pointing out how many Japanese companies operating in the country invested as much as $3 billion last year for manufacturing export-quality goods.

"This figure is expected to rise by 30 percent this year."

In 2004, total exports reached a historic high of $69.71 billion -- up 11.49 percent from the year before -- helped by strong sales of non-oil and gas commodities including palm oil, electronics, clothing, coal and tin.

The country needs stronger exports to help generate higher economic growth, which has been driven mainly by robust domestic consumption in past years.

To date, net exports only make up about 10 percent of the economy, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), compared to about 70 percent contributed by consumption.

Indonesia's economy grew 5.13 percent last year.

The BPS also reported that total January-February's exports were helped by strong non-oil and gas exports, which rose 30.77 percent as compared to the same period last year, far outclassing the 9.4 percent growth in oil and gas exports.

For non-oil and gas exports, the U.S. remained the nation's main destination as of February, followed closely by the European Union (EU) and Japan, valued at $1.6 billion, $1.6 billion and $1.4 billion, respectively.

The three nations represent 47.55 percent of the nation's total non-oil and gas exports.

Meanwhile, imports in the first two months of the year totaled $7.99 billion, an increase of 18.69 percent from the $6.73 billion in the same period in 2004.

Performance of Exports --------------------------------------------------------

Jan-Feb 2005 Jan-Feb 2004 -------------------------------------------------------- 1. Oil and Gas : US$2.56b $2.34b 2. Non-oil and Gas :

2.1. Agricultural : $0.46b $0.37b

2.2. Industry : $8.42b $6.79b

2.3. Mining : $1.07b $0.45b --------------------------------------------------------- Total : $12.51b $9.95b ---------------------------------------------------------- Source: BPS