Trucks drive past stacks of containers at the Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta, Indonesia, February 3, 2023. (Photo: Reuters) Hanoi (VNA) - Indonesia's trade surplus in April increased from theprevious month, with imports softening due to less production activities duringthe holiday of Ramadan, according to a poll conducted by Reuters.
According to the analysis of 14 economists in the survey, the tradesurplus in April likely increased to 3.38 billion USD from 2.91billion USD in March.
The Southeast Asian nation has been recordingmonthly trade surpluses since mid-2020, but economists have said it is likely toshrink this year as some commodity prices fall due to weakening global demand.
Economists in the poll predicted that April exports drop 18.55%on an annual basis due to high base effects, which will be a deeper contractionfrom 11.33% in the previous month.
The month’s imports were also seen declining7.85% from the same period last year.
Faisal Rachman from Bank Mandiri said exportswere seen declining in April due to less working days compared to the samemonth last year, which had Ramadan holiday in May.
He expected trade surplus will continue shrinking going forward as exportsare expected to continue easing./.
