RI Records Surplus In Trade In August: BPS

Jakarta, Oct 1 (Antara) - Indonesia enjoyed a surplus of US$132.4 million in its trade in August, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (BPS). "Indonesia again reported a trade surplus in August after reporting four months of deficit since April," BPS Head Suryamin said on the sidelines of an official statistics announcement at the BPS Building here on Tuesday. He further stated that the trade surplus in August was a result of exports touching US$13.15 billion or because they were higher than imports, which were recorded at US$13.03 billion. Suryamin pointed out that the trade surplus news was also followed by a surplus in the balance of trade volume that reached 43.11 million tons, which was a margin between export volumes recorded at 52.01 million tons and import volume at 9.89 million tons. In August, Indonesia`s total exports dropped 12.77 percent to US$13.16 billion from US$15.087 billion in July driven by a decline in non-oil/gas exports. "In August, exports of non-oil/gas dropped 18.88 percent to US$10.38 billion from US$12.81 billion in July," Suryamin said. Although Indonesia was able to boost oil and gas exports up by up to 21.38 percent to US$2.77 billion from US$2.28 billion, the hike was not enough to make up for the drop in non-oil/gas exports. The drop in the non-oil/gas exports took place after mineral fuels slumped 270.7 percent and exports of machinery/electronic equipment was down 218.9 percent. The decline was also a result of cumulative exports from January to August falling to US$119.32 billion or down 6.12 percent from US$127.01 billion in the same period last year. Although Indonesia`s total exports have declined, it has been able to curb the value of imports. In August, the value of imports touched US$13.03 billion, down 25.2 percent from imports in July that reached US$17.42 billion. A drop in the total imports in August 2013 took place because of a decline in the imports of crude to US$7.16 billion, down 15.93 percent from July. Imports of oil products also fell 11.42 percent to US$2.24 billion from US$2.74 billion. A decline was also recorded in the imports of non-oil/gas commodities touching 29.49 percent to US$9.36 billion from an earlier US$13.28 billion. Indonesia also reported a surplus in its trade with ASEAN at US$230.6 million, with its exports touching US$2.21 billion and imports US$1.98 billion. The country recorded a surplus in its trade with all ASEAN member countries, except Thailand, with which it suffered a deficit of US$407.3 million with exports reaching US$340 million, but imports soaring to US$747.7 million. Meanwhile, Indonesia suffered a deficit of US$519.6 million in its trade with China and US$290.5 million with Japan, while it had a surplus of US$371.6 million in its trade with the U.S. Suryamin said Indonesia must seek new breakthroughs to overcome the deficits in trade with those countries. "It must also increase competitiveness of its export products, reduce imports of consumer goods, and raise the volume of exports of unique goods or goods that other countries do not have," he added.