Illustrative image (Source: Internet) BPS head Suhariyanto attributed the increase to 24.94 percent rise in the imports of commodities other than oil and gas to 11.10 billion USD from 8.86 billion USD in February, Antara News reported.
Imports of oil and gas dropped 211.2 million USD or 8.54 percent.
"Year-on-year, the imports in March also rose 18.19 percent from 11.3 billion," Suhariyanto was quoted by Antara News as saying.
Meanwhile, imports of oil and gas were valued at 2.26 billion USD in March, or down 8.54 percent from 2.47 billion USD in February. Year-on-year, the March imports of oil and gas rose 45.70 percent from 1.55 billion USD.
Cumulatively in the first three months of 2017 imports were valued at 36.68 billion USD or an increase of 14.83 percent from 31.94 billion USD in the same period in 2016.
The largest imports came from China reaching 7.75 billion USD, followed by Japan from which imports were valued at 3.42 billion USD and Thailand from which imports were valued at 2.15 billion USD.
Meanwhile the country’s exports in March rose 15.68 percent to 14.59 billion USD from 12.61 billion USD.
The international trade in March, therefore, favoured the country with a surplus of 1.23 billion USD.
Cumulatively in the first three months of the year, exports were valued at 40.61 billion USD or up 20.84 percent from the same period in 2016./.
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