Bank Indonesia: Increased Trade Balance Surplus Strengthens Economic Resilience

JAKARTA - Bank Indonesia (BI) positively welcomes a report from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) which states that Indonesia's trade balance experienced a surplus of US$3.45 billion in June 2023.

Head of the BI Communications Department Erwin Haryono said that the score was better than in May 2023 which recorded a surplus of 430 million US dollars.

"Bank Indonesia views this development as positive for efforts to continue to maintain the external resilience of the Indonesian economy," he said in a press release today, Monday, July 17.

Erwin explained that the trade balance surplus in June 2023 was mainly driven by an increase in the surplus of non-oil and gas trade balances. It was stated that the non-oil and gas trade balance surplus was recorded at 4.42 billion US dollars, an increase compared to the previous month's non-oil and gas surplus of 2.25 billion US dollars.

"Non-oil and gas exports remain high, especially from increasing exports of natural resources-based commodities such as CPO and steel as global commodity prices are still high," he said.

Erwin added that non-oil and gas exports of several manufacturing products were also recorded to have increased, such as grounds and residual food industries as well as inorganic chemicals.

Based on destination countries, non-oil and gas exports to China, the United States, and Japan remain the main contributors to Indonesia's total exports.

Meanwhile, the oil and gas trade balance deficit recorded a decline from 1.83 billion US dollars in May 2023 to 960 million US dollars in June 2023 in line with the increase in crude exports and oil products.

"In the future, Bank Indonesia will continue to strengthen policy synergies with the government and other authorities to continue to improve external resilience and support national economic recovery," Erwin concluded.