RI January exports drop 14 percent

The value of Indonesia’s total exports in January was US$14.45 billion, a 14 percent drop from December 2010, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) announced Tuesday.

The BPS noted, however, that the January figure represented an almost 25 percent increase compared to the same month a year ago.

BPS head Rusman Heriawan said the month-to-month decline was an expected phenomenon at the start of each year.

“Apart from a shorter effective working period, people globally tend to spend most of their money to meet year-end needs,” he was quoted as saying by news portal tempointeraktif.com.

Rusman added that the decline in export value was led by the decline in the value of non-oil and gas exports, which was 12 percent lower than in December 2010.

BPS also reported a decline in the value of imports, which stood at $12.55 billion in January, 4.5 percent lower than the previous month.