Indonesia: Coronavirus hurts the trade balance – UOB

Enrico Tanuwidjaja, Economist at UOB Group, reviewed the impact of the Chinese COVID-19 on the latest trade balance figures in Indonesia.

Key Quotes

“Indonesia trade balance posted a large deficit of USD864.2mn in January 2020, as exports to Indonesia key trading partner – China dropped amidst impact from the novel coronavirus (COVID19) outbreak, which more than offset the decline in imports.”

“Despite the impact of slower exports growth hitting some of the Indonesia’s key commodity exports and a high likelihood that it will take some time for Indonesia to diversify, we are hopeful that COVID-19 would soon be contained (within 6 months or earlier) and as such are still projecting a steadier expansion in H2 2020.”