Indonesian Exports Soar in 2021

JAKARTA -  Indonesia’s exports performed well in April 2021, with data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS) showing that Indonesia managed to export up to US$18.48 billion of goods and services. It is a 0.69% increase from the export value in March 2021, which reached US$18.35 billion.

BPS head Suhariyanto explained that when compared year-on-year, Indonesia’s exports in April 2021 grew by 51.94% compared to the US$12.16 billion achieved in April 2020 and eclipses the US$13.07 billion achieved in April 2019.

“Our exports performance for April 2021 are impressive. This is despite predictions that our export figures will decrease in that month, but it turns out, it has risen higher than ever,” Suhariyanto said on Thursday (20/5).

Cumulatively, Indonesia’s total export value between January and April 2021 reached US$67.38 billion, rising 24.96% from the same period in 2020, where energy exports reached US$3.61 billion (27.14% higher from the previous period) and non-energy exports reached US$63.78 billion (rising by 24.84% from the previous period).

The largest increase of non-energy exports in April 2021 compared to March 2021 came from steel and iron exports, of which US$246.2 million was exported (17.5%), while the biggest decease in exports came from vegetable oil/animal fat exports which only achieved US$398.3 million (fell by 13.81%).

Other commodities that experience growth in exports include precious metals/jewelry/gemstones (rose 39.47% to US$117.2 million), iron ore, slags and dust (26.55% increase to US$108.2 million), tin and products containing it (31.48% to US$47.5 million) and machineries and electronic equipment (3.21% to US$31.2 million).

Per sector, non-energy exports by the processing industry between January and April 2021 rose by 25.96% compared to the same period in 2020, agriculture sector exports rose by 15.75% and mining exports rose by 19.66%.

The largest markets for non-energy exports in April 2021 include China (US$3.93 billion), the United States (US$2.03 billion), and Japan (US$1.32 billion), all three of them making up 41.56% of Indonesia’s export recipients that month. Meanwhile, exports to the ASEAN region reached US$3.59 billion while the European Union reached US$1.39 billion.

Most of Indonesia’s exports between January and April 2021 came from West Java (US$11.01 billion, making up 16.34%), followed by East Java (US$7.36 billion, 10.91%) and Riau (US$6.05 billion, 8.97%).