Indonesia sees record trade surplus over 13 months
Indonesia’s trade surplus in September reached US$1.21 billion, the highest level for the past 13 months, the Jakarta Post on October 18 cited official data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).
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The outcome was attributed to the surging exports of iron, steel and tin to Australia and Thailand.
However, the overall imports and exports still declined due to the lackluster global economic growth and slow recovery of commodity prices.
Indonesia grossed US$12.51 billion in export in September, a year-on-year decline of 0.59%. The nine-month export turnover was estimated at US$115.21 billion, down 9.4% against the same period last year.
The import turnover was also low at US$11.3 billion, a yearly decrease of 2.26%. The total import revenue in January-September stood at US$107.99 billion, down 8.6% over the previous year.
Trade surplus over the past nine months was recorded at US$7.22 billion.
The Indonesian government encouraged manufacturers and exporters to make inroads into non-traditional markets such as Africa, South-Central Asia, East-Central Europe, and South America as well as improve quality of products, designs and packing.
