Business actors are concerned about the decline in export commodity prices and their impact on the manufacturing industry in the near future. According to the General Chairperson of the Indonesian Employers' Association (Apindo) Hariyadi Sukamdani, world commodity prices are starting to show a downward trend which may lead to a slowdown in manufacturing. "Although yesterday's trade balance surplus was driven by commodities, what is feared is that commodity prices will fall. The trend is starting to show. It is possible that there will be a slowdown in the next quarter," Hariyadi told Bisnis recently.

Commodity Price), all commodity prices in July 2022 decreased compared to June 2022 except for coal and gas prices.

Regarding the problem of slowdown, the latest data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) shows a slowdown in exports on a monthly basis for a number of manufactured commodities in July 2022.

Commodities such as iron and steel experienced a slowdown in exports by 11.51 percent on a monthly basis (month-to-month/mtm) with a value of US$257 million.

In total, iron and steel exports in July 2022 were worth US$1.97 billion, down from the previous month which was still US$2.2 billion.

Nevertheless, Indonesia's iron and steel exports from January to July 2022 still showed better performance compared to the same period in the previous year.

In the January - July 2022 period, domestically produced iron and steel exports reached US$16.4 billion. Meanwhile, in the same period last year, exports of iron and steel only reached US$10.5 billion.

Another example is the textile sector. Monthly exports of the most important textile product, namely footwear, also fell in the trade balance last July.

Footwear exports from Indonesia fell 7.57 percent to US$658 million. In the same period the previous year, domestically produced footwear exports still reached US$712.4 million. This figure has decreased by US$53.9 million.