Trade Balance of Indonesia Improves Strongly in 2019, Yet Concern Persists
The trade balance of Indonesia showed a relatively small deficit in the last month of 2019. Based on the latest data from Statistics Indonesia (Badan Pusat Statistik, or BPS), a USD $28.2 million trade deficit was recorded in December 2019, much smaller than analysts had predicted.
It is not only a major improvement from the USD $1.07 billion trade deficit in the same month one year earlier, but also a major improvement from the USD $1.39 billion deficit posted in November 2019 (which had been Indonesia’s largest trade gap in seven months).
The reason why Indonesia posted a better-than-expected trade balance in December 2019 was because exports were much stronger than analysts had predicted (in fact, analysts had been expecting a drop). And while exports of non-oil & gas products picked up (especially agricultural and manufacturing items), imports of raw materials as well as capital goods fell. BPS Chairman Suhariyanto stated that an increase in prices of several commodities including crude palm oil (CPO) managed to boost the county’s exports in December 2019.
Read the full article in our January 2020 edition
