Indonesia’s Trade Balance Surplus Maintains Economic Resilience, Says Central Bank

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Indonesia’s central bank said that the country’s trade balance surplus brings a positive contribution to the external resilience of the economy.

Indonesia has again posted a $1.96 billion surplus in January, or slightly decreased compared to the surplus of $2.1 billion in the previous month.

“Bank Indonesia believes that the trade balance surplus has a positive contribution to maintaining the external resilience of the economy,” said Erwin Haryono, Bank Indonesia (BI) executive director who is the head of the communication department, in a statement on Tuesday, February 16.

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Erwin said that January’s trade balance surplus was affected by the non-oil and gas sector.
At the beginning of this year, the non-oil and gas trade balance surplus stood at $2.63 billion, or up 2.73 percent from $2.56 billion in December 2020. The increase was affected by exports which stood at $15.30 billion. Although, it was lower than $15.54 billion in the previous month.

“Exports of commodities derived from natural resources such as CPO [crude palm oil], coal, and iron ore, were improved amid a decline in exports of some manufactured products,” said Erwin.

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Meanwhile, non-oil and gas imports declined in all components mainly due to weak domestic demand.

The oil and gas trade balance deficit slightly increased from $0.46 billion in December 2020 to $0.67 billion following the decline in oil and gas exports.

“Going forward, Bank Indonesia will continue to strengthen its policy to synergize with the government and relevant authorities to increase external resilience, including the trade balance performance,” he said.

(Writer: Fika Nurul Ulya | Editor: Yoga Sukmana)

Source: https://money.kompas.com/read/2021/02/16/150001526/bi-surplus-neraca-perdagangan-jaga-ketahanan-perekonomian.