TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Indonesia records US$1.63 billion trade deficit in April
Change Size
Central Statistics Agency head Suhariyanto (JP/Anton Hermansyah)
I
ndonesia recorded a US$1.63 billion trade deficit in April due to an “unusual” increase in imports, particularly on capital goods, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) announced on Tuesday.
Exports were booked at $14.47 billion, an increase of 9.01 percent year-on-year (yoy), primarily driven by the increase in vehicles and spare parts, rubber as well as manufactured goods from iron and steel, among others.
Imports, meanwhile, jumped by 34.68 percent yoy in April to $16.09 billion.
Read also: Indonesia books $1.09b trade surplus in March: BPS
Capital goods, which accounted for 16.29 percent of imports in April, increased 40.81 percent yoy to $2.62 billion. Intermediary goods also increased 33 percent yoy to $11.96 billion over the same period.
BPS head Suhariyanto said the large increase in capital goods and raw materials imports were “unusual” as it occurred near the Ramadhan period, slated to commence in mid-May, which traditionally saw declined imports due to fewer working days in the period.
“Capital goods and raw material imports in the period near Ramadhan were unusual as usually [the producers] imported the goods at least two months earlier thanks to the holiday season [at the end of Ramadhan],” said Suhariyanto in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Indonesia booked $8.16 billion in non-oil and gas exports to China in April, while exports to the United States and Japan were recorded at $5.85 billion and $5.47 billion, respectively, over the same period.
As for the import side, Indonesia imported non-oil and gas goods worth $13.92 billion from China as of April, while imports from Japan and Thailand were recorded at $5.98 billion and $3.45 billion, respectively. (bbn)
