Indonesia's December trade surplus at US$1b, smaller than expected

[JAKARTA] Indonesia's trade surplus narrowed more than expected in December to US$1.02 billion as imports surged, data from the statistics bureau showed on Monday (Jan 17).

A Reuters poll had expected a US$3.13 billion surplus in December. The surplus was US$3.5 billion in November.

December imports were US$21.36 billion, up 47.93 per cent on a yearly basis and beating the poll's forecast of a 39.4 per cent growth.

Meanwhile export growth was 35.3 per cent on a yearly basis compared with the poll's expectation of 40.4 per cent growth, with total shipments reaching US$22.38 billion.

REUTERS