Imports in March Touch 20 Billion US Dollars: Remain Domination of Raw Materials and Capital Goods

JAKARTA – The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) recorded the value of imports of goods and services throughout March 2023 amounting to US$20.5 billion.

Deputy for Methodology and Statistical Information at BPS Imam Machdi revealed that this figure had jumped by more than 29 percent when compared to February 2023 which was 15.9 percent.

"In the last three months, import growth in March on a month-to-month (mtm) basis has had the same pattern, namely strengthening and being the highest throughout the year," he said at a press conference on Monday, March 17.

Imam explained that RI's main imports were dominated by raw/auxiliary materials worth 15.1 percent or the equivalent of 73 percent of the total. While the rest are capital goods and consumer goods.

"On a monthly basis, the value of imports increased for all types of use. Imports of capital goods experienced the highest growth with 34 percent," he said.

According to Imam, on an annual basis Indonesia's imports in March 2023 decreased compared to March 2022 which at that time amounted to US$21.9 billion.

Furthermore, Indonesia's share of imports is still dominated by China with a contribution of 33 percent. Then, Japan 8 percent, Thailand 6 percent, South Korea 6 percent, the United States 5 percent, and Singapore 4 percent.

"The deepest decline in our imports came from Canada, South Africa, Madagascar, Peru and also New Zealand," he stressed.

Meanwhile, the value of Indonesia's exports in the same period amounted to 23.5 billion US dollars. This made the trade balance in a surplus position of 2.91 billion US dollars last month.

"Indonesia's trade balance until March 2023 has experienced a surplus of 35 consecutive months since May 2020," said Imam.