The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) released the growth of the textile and apparel industry throughout 2022 of 9.34 percent. Observer from the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF) Andry Satrio said, in this increase, the government did not need to be proud of the results of improvements for the textile and textile products (TPT) industry, because according to him these improvements were not massive enough. "The government also still needs to be careful, don't let the TPT industry, which is growing fast, be translated because there are quite massive improvements," said Andry, Wednesday (8/2/2023).

According to Andry, the growth of the textile and apparel industry released by BPS of 9.34 percent could occur because the previous year was still in the Covid-19 pandemic situation which made this industry not grow optimally.

"We see that the performance tends to be up to 9.34 percent due to the low base effect that occurred in 2021, where in 2021 the industry's performance will still be negative," explained Andry.

Andry revealed that the government has indeed taken various ways to restore the national economy after the Covid-19 pandemic. However, according to him, the improvements made by the government have not brought the TPT industry to the post-pandemic conditions it should have.

Moreover, said Andry, there are still a number of problems regarding weakening export demand due to unstable geopolitical conditions, as well as the government's failure to suppress foreign products that are still flooding the domestic market.

"There is an improvement in performance, but in my opinion this is still in the stage of not returning to what it was like after Covid, because demand, especially massive export demand, has decreased and also a fairly massive wave of imported products from outside entering the Indonesian market," he added.

On the other hand, during the last quarter of last year, the textile industry actually fell. Based on information from the West Java Textile Product Employers' Association (PPTPJB), it was noted that more than 64,000 workers were laid off from 124 companies.