JAKARTA, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian trade ministry has set a lower target of non-oil and gas exports this year as slower projection global economic growth will edge off demand.
Indonesian Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita said on Thursday that the ministry expects the shipment of non-oil and gas product offshore to ratchet up 7.5 percent to 175 billion U.S. dollars by this year end, compared with last year's export expectation of 11 percent.
According to data from the national statistics bureau, export last year only grew 6.5 percent to 162.65 billion U.S. dollars.
"The target has been set up... it was based on the outlook of the global economic growth which is slowing down," Minister Lukita said.
Downside risks of global tariff hikes amid softer momentum of growth in Europe at the second half of 2018 have led the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in January revised downward its projection on the global growth for this year to 3.5 percent, 0.2 percent below its projection in October.
Despite of the downshift in the global demand, the minister said prices of commodities, such as rubber, cocoa, crude palm oil, tea, shrimp and coffee are estimated to accelerate at a faster pace this year
Timbers, mining products, such as copper, nickel, aluminum and tin are also forecast to log growth in demand and prices in addition to the commodities above, Lukita cited.
Indonesia is the world's major exporter of crude palm oil, thermal coal, rubber and cocoa.
