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Indonesia sees narrowing trade surplus as coal exports down
Indonesia booked a $932.9 million trade surplus in January, around half of the surplus seen a year earlier as the coal export ban took a hit.
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Coal barges line up to be pulled along Mahakam River in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, on Aug. 31, 2019. The coal export ban led to a narrowing of Indonesia's trade surplus in January. (Reuters/Willy Kurniawan)
T
he trade surplus in January was recorded at US$932.9 million, around half of the surplus booked a year earlier, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data show. The surplus narrowed partly as imports continued to grow faster than exports.
In January, exports grew by 25.31 percent year-on-year (yoy) to $19.16 billion and imports by 36.77 percent yoy to $18.23 billion. January’s growth for both exports and imports was slower than that of December.
“Our trade balance has booked a surplus for 21 consecutive months,” Setianto, undersecretary for services and distribution statistics, said in a virtual press briefing on Tuesday.
While experts expected this year’s trade surplus to narrow, partly because of normalizing commodity prices, January’s narrowing surplus came at a time when Indonesia banned coal exports to secure supplies for domestic power plants.
