The COVID-19 pandemic devastated the world economy, and Jakarta has been no exception. Despite the global recession threat, some economic indicators of Jakarta recovered and strongly grew compared to the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. One indicator was Jakarta’s import values of Jakarta which were comfortably above the pre-pandemic level, rebounding 17,57 percent since January 2020.
In January 2023, imports of Jakarta stood at US$ 6,309.71 million. Following the situational trend at the beginning of the year for the past two years, imports of Jakarta contracted 3.11 percent compared to the previous month. In this period, non-oil and gas imports were recorded at US$ 6,164.73 million against US$ 6,512.02 million in December 2022. The contraction of month-to-month imports in this period was mainly triggered by the decline of consumer goods and capital goods by 13.21 and 9.03 percent, respectively. Amid the imports decline, intermediate goods showed a positive growth by 1.51 percent compared to the previous month.
The latest figures show the imports of Jakarta plummeted by 6.29 percent compared to the same period in the previous year (year-on-year). The oil and gas imports grew by 8,35 percent, while the non-oil and gas imports contracted by 6,59 percent. Since the non-oil and gas sector dominates Jakarta’s imports (97.70 percent of Jakarta’s total imports), the rise in this sector will significantly affect the total value of Jakarta’s imports.