Indonesia Estimated to Have US$1 Bln Surplus in Foreign Trade

Jakarta, MINA — Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Perry Warjiyo said he estimated the country was favored with a surplus of US$1 billion in its foreign trade in June, larger than previous prediction of US$900 million.

“The latest data show that the trade balance surplus in June was US$ 1 billion, larger than previous estimate of US$900 million,” Perry was quoted b Antara News as saying here on Wednesday.

He said the surplus would help reduce the deficit in the current account balance in the second quarter of 2018, which is seasonally higher.

“We want to remind us that the current account deficit is normally higher in the second quarter of a year, no need to be worried as it would decline in the third quarter,” he said.

He said throughout 2018, the current account deficit would not be higher than 2.5 percent of the GDP.

Earlier, the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) said the country`s trade balance had a deficit of US$1.52 billion in May, 2018.

The deficit included US$1.24 billion in oil and gas trade and US$0.28 billion in trade of non-oil;/gas commodities.

Rising price of crude oil in international market resulted in the high deficit in the trade of oil and gas.

Cumulatively from January to May 2018, the country had a trade deficit of US$2.8 billion as against a surplus of US$5.9 billion in the same period last year as a result of improved export performance (T/RS5/RS1)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)