Indonesia trade balance swings to positive

JAKARTA: Indonesia’s trade balance unexpectedly swung back to surplus in September as imports and exports grew much slower than expected, data released by the statistics bureau showed yesterday.

Indonesia, South-East Asia’s largest economy, reported a trade surplus of US$230mil for September, compared with a US$500mil deficit expected in a Reuters poll.

The country revised its trade August to US$944mil.

September imports were worth US$14.60bil, up 14.18% from a year earlier. That compared with expectation of a 24.76% increase in the poll. Exports were worth US$14.83bil in September, up 1.70% from a year earlier, compared with the poll forecast of a 7.58% increase.

Exports were supported by coal and crude palm oil. Oil and gas exports, on the other hand, dropped nearly 17% annually in September, said Yunita Rusanti, a senior official at the statistics bureau.

Declining oil and gas exports despite high oil prices should be treated as a warning for policymakers, said Satria Sambijantoro, an economist at Bahana Securities.

Some measures, including higher tariffs, have been imposed to curb unnecessary imports of consumer goods to contain the trade gap and support the rupiah that has lost around 11% of its value to the dollar so far this year. — Reuters deficit in