Jakarta [Indonesia], September 16: Indonesia recorded a deep export decline of 21.21 percent year on year to 22.00 billion U.S. dollars in August, according to Statistics Indonesia (BPS) on Friday.
Exports of leading commodities such as coal contracted 48.91 percent year on year, and palm oil minus 35.23 percent, as did iron and steel, although they only fell 0.96 percent.
"Cumulatively, the value of Indonesia's exports from January to August reached 171.52 billion U.S. dollars or a decrease of 11.85 percent compared to the same period last year," said acting head of BPS, AmaliaWidyasanti, at a press conference.
Primarily, non-oil and gas export destinations in August were China, the United States, and India, with the contribution of the three reaching 45.20 percent of the total.
Meanwhile, the value of imports in August was recorded at 18.88 billion U.S. dollars, down 14.77 percent compared to the same month last year.
Due to all these developments, Indonesia recorded a trade balance of 3.12 billion U.S. dollars that month, its 40th consecutive month of surplus.
Source: Xinhua
