Recent Developments in Indonesia’s Macro-economy and Trade, Q1-2018

Febrio Kacaribu (Institute for Economic and Social Research, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Indonesia)
Alvin Ulido Lumbanraja (Institute for Economic and Social Research, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Indonesia)
Mohamad Dian Revindo (European Studies Program, Graduate School of Strategic and Global Studies (Sekolah Kajian Stratejik dan Global), Universitas Indonesia)
Syahda Sabrina (Institute for Economic and Social Research, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Indonesia)
Zehan Pricilia (Institute for Economic and Social Research, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Indonesia)
Yeremia Natanael (Institute for Economic and Social Research, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Indonesia)

Economics and Finance in Indonesia
Volume 64, Number 1, June 2018

This paper discusses Indonesia’s macroeconomic and trade development in the first quarter of 2018. The macroeconomic data shows that the industrial growth was inhibited by regulatory regime inconsistency, while consumption growth still lagged overall GDP growth, and investment growth tended to rise. The trade data shows that the non-oil-and-gas commodities dominated its export, although the commodities’ terms-of-trade declined. Indonesia’s imports were mostly used as raw and auxiliary materials for the input of domestic production. The data also reveals that the larger the firms, the stronger tendency that they have comparative advantage in capital-intensive commodities, and vice versa.