November exports up, full-year target within reach
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Exports in November 2003 rose in comparison with the same month the year before, marking the first rise in three months, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) announced in its latest report.
November exports stood at US$4.86 billion, up by 9.6 percent from $4.44 billion on a year-on-year basis, BPS director Rusman Heriawan told a press briefing on Friday.
The figure, despite representing a 2.6 percent slide compared to October's exports, brought the country's total exports in the first 11 months in 2003 to $55.59 billion, a 6.3 percent rise over the same period in the previous year.
Rusman said that non-oil and gas exports in November were valued at $3.8 billion, a 14 percent increase from $3.3 billion recorded a year earlier -- which he suggested was a sign of a pick-up in the global economy including the world's major economic forces, the U.S. and Japan, which are the country's main export destinations.
Had the rupiah not strengthened, the value of the exports could have even been higher, Rusman admitted.
The rupiah had gained over the U.S. dollar last year thanks mostly to a combination of the latter's weak footing against other currencies and a fairly positive progress in the macroeconomic fundamentals here.
From the start of 2003, the local currency has strengthened by about 6 percent.
The reports said that combined non-oil and gas exports to the U.S., Japan and Singapore reached $1.54 billion in November, which accounted for some 40.5 percent of the total non-oil and gas exports.
In view of the November export figures, Indonesia is poised to meet its full-year export target of $60 billion. The shortfall stands at $4.41 billion.
The global economic slowdown, coupled with the adverse business climate here, had hampered efforts to boost export performance over the past years. Robust exports are needed to help generate higher economic growth, which is currently depending heavily on domestic consumption as investment -- another economic growth engine -- remains scarce.
According to analysts, net exports currently contribute just slightly above 20 percent of the country's economic growth, as represented in the gross domestic products (GDP), which measures the total value of goods and services a country produces in a year.
Meanwhile, imports fell in November to $2.7 billion from $2.9 billion posted a year ago, BPS said.
However, January-November imports rose 4.1 percent to $29.5 billion, from $28.3 billion in the same period the year before.
These narrow down November's trade to $2.16 billion from $2.26 billion in October.
Import performance is a crucial indicator to measure the demand for raw materials and machinery to meet orders.
Moreover, a steady rise in imports may also reflect the need of the manufacturing companies to increase the number of employees to cover the companies' higher outputs.