“While in a discussion with the President [Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo] at the palace, we pledged to solve the trade balance issue,” said Darmin at his office in Jakarta on Monday as reported by kontan.co.id.

BPS announced that Indonesia had booked a US$1.52 billion trade deficit in May, prolonging the poor trade performance this year after booking a $670 million trade deficit in January, a $116 million trade deficit in February and a $1.09 billion trade surplus in March, but once again recorded a trade deficit of $1.63 billion in April.

The poor trade performance has continued since December last year when the country booked a $270 million trade deficit.

Darmin expressed optimism the country's trade performance could be improved, but did not reveal what strategy would be pursued.

He said Indonesia had to overcome its current trade balance performance as countries with trade deficits were vulnerable to being seriously affected by the current global trade tensions, particularly those between the United State and China.

“If we cannot escape [the trade deficit], we will be affected by the threat of a trade war. We will be under even more pressure because there has already been pressure from the Fed Fund Rate increase,” Darmin added.    

He said Indonesia could reduce its imports of consumer goods, but that it was difficult to curb imports of raw materials. (bbn)

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