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Minister of Trade (Mendag), Muhammad Lutfi - sekneg

Minister of Trade, Muhammad Lutfi, has said he expects Indonesia's exports to swell by 4 percent this year to support the government’s economic growth target of 5-5.5 percent.

"I believe it will happen because there is such a thing as a supercycle instead of a commodity," the minister said during an online press conference in Jakarta on Friday.

Lutfi said he has seen the calculations of global agencies, such as the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development), both of which have made corrections to their projections for the world economy and stated that the numbers will improve.

"If we look at the world rating agencies, especially the IMF, the OECD provides an update on the world economy, which is rising. So, it means that it is correcting, but (it is) not a downward correction; the correction is upwards," the minister elaborated.Meanwhile, Indonesia is aiming for 5-5.5 percent economic growth this year. To achieve the economic growth target, exports must grow by 4 percent, while import growth cannot be more than 2 percent, household consumption must increase by 5 percent, and investment needs to grow by 13.7 percent, he said.

Regarding this matter, from the trade side, there are two things that directly intersect, namely exports and imports, he remarked.

Although the increase in exports must reach 4 percent, the Trade Ministry is designing a strategy so that exports can grow by 6.3 percent, he added.

The Trade Minister's optimism is supported by the trend of commodity supercycles, or commodities whose prices have risen rapidly compared to previous years, such as crude oil, LNG, rice, iron ore, and copper."Some of the world's major commodity prices recorded a very significant record increase in 2020, which triggered speculation of a commodity supercycle in 2020-2021 due to economic stimulus in developed countries, the weakening dollar exchange rate, and a drastic increase in demand in China and industrialized countries in Asia," the Trade Minister said//ANT