Indonesia sees surge in trade surplus as imports decline. (Photo: Antara News)
Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesia posted a trade surplus of nearly 670 million USD in April, slightly higher than 508 million USD of the previous month, primarily due to a bigger than expected decline in imports.
The country’s Jakarta Post quoted statistics by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) saying that despite booking another trade surplus in April, the country saw an overall year-on-year drop in exports.
According to the BPS, Indonesian exports slid 3.1 percent from March and 12.7 percent year-on-year to 11.45 billion USD due to declining exports of coal caused by the end of winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
The country imported 10.78 billion USD worth of commodities in April, down 4.6 percent from March and 14.6 percent from the same period last year as there was lower domestic demand for food imports, especially wheat and sugar.
Indonesia’s Antara News reported that a majority of the country’s non-oil commodity imports were shipped from China, worth 9.65 billion USD or 26 percent of its total imports. Its second biggest trader was Japan (4.1 billion USD), who was followed closely by Thailand (3.05 billion USD).
The country has seen a 2.3 billion USD trade surplus in the first four month of the year with exports totalling 45.1 billion USD and imports worth 42.7 billion USD.-VNA
