COVID-19: Impacts of Indonesia's Trade

This paper analyses how the coronavirus (COVID-19) has affected Indonesia’s exports and imports, both in terms of volume and value. We use monthly trade data at the Harmonized System (HS) 8-digit level from January 2017 to December 2020. We use fixed effects and difference-in-differences (DID) approaches. The findings show that COVID-19 lowers the export volume by 10.7% (export value by 13.4%). At the same time, COVID-19 reduces import volume by 16.42% (import value by 25.9%). Analysing the causes of decreases in Indonesia’s trade will shed light on the causes of the drop in such trade figures. It will help design appropriate policy responses to enhance trade for the Indonesian economy’s swift recovery.

COVID-19: Impacts of Indonesia's Trade