Trade Balance Surplus, BI: Supports National Economic Recovery

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA Bank Indonesia (BI) issued an official statement related to Indonesia's trade balance surplus which continued in March 2023 amounting to US $ 2.91 billion.

The score is lower than February 2023 which amounted to 5.46 billion US.

Head of the BI Communication Department Erwin Haryono said that this development was positive for efforts to continue to maintain the external resilience of the Indonesian economy.

"In the future, Bank Indonesia will continue to strengthen policy synergies with the Government and other authorities in order to further increase external resilience and support national economic recovery," he said.

Erwin explained that the trade balance surplus in March 2023 was mainly driven by the continued surplus of non-oil and gas trade balances.

According to him, despite slowing down compared to the previous month, the non-oil and gas trade balance recorded a surplus of US$4.58 billion supported by the continued strong performance of non-oil and gas exports of US$22.16 billion.

"Non-oil and gas exports that remain strong mainly come from increasing exports of natural resources-based commodities such as coal, precious metals, metal ore, and iron and steel as global commodity prices are still high," he said.

Erwin added that the increase in non-oil and gas exports was also recorded in manufacturing products such as machinery and mechanical equipment as well as their parts.

Based on destination countries, non-oil and gas exports to China, the United States, and Japan have recorded an increase and become a major contributor to Indonesia's total exports.

"Meanwhile, the oil and gas trade balance deficit was recorded to have slightly increased from 1.22 billion US dollars in February 2023 to a deficit of 1.68 billion US dollars in March 2023," he concluded.