34 Months Record Continues! RI Trade Balance Surplus Of 5.48 Billion US Dollars In February

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Ministry of Finance)

JAKARTA – The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) confirmed that Indonesia managed to score a trade balance surplus of US$5.48 billion in February 2023.

BPS Deputy for Distribution Statistics Habibullah said the figure was obtained from the higher export value, which was US$21.3 billion compared to US$15.9 billion worth of imports.

"Indonesia's trade balance in February 2023 experienced a surplus of 5.48 billion US dollars, mainly from the non-oil and gas sector 6.7 billion, but was reduced by a deficit in the oil and gas sector of 1.2 billion," he said while holding a press conference on Wednesday, March 15.

Habibullah explained that this revenue was greater than in January, which at that time amounted to US$3.88 billion. In fact, it increased significantly from the same period the previous year (year on year/yoy), which was US$3.83 billion as of February 2022.

“In February 2023, the trade balance continued its surplus trend for 34 consecutive months. The trade balance surplus is fairly good because it occurred amidst a much bigger decline in imports compared to a decline in exports," he stressed.

Furthermore, last month's exports were still dominated by non-oil and gas commodities with a value of US$20.2 billion. Meanwhile, oil and gas commodities contributed US$1.1 billion.

Meanwhile, the drop in imports was contributed to the non-oil and gas and oil and gas sectors. In detail, last month's non-oil and gas imports were valued at 13.5 billion US dollars, down 13 percent from January 2023.

Then, oil and gas imports in February 2023 were valued at USD 2.4 billion, down 17.1 percent compared to January 2023.