"This surplus is the highest in the past three years after the one recorded at US$602.6 million in December in 2011," BPS chief Suryamin said.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia enjoyed a surplus of US$1.52 billion in its trade in December 2013 with its exports reaching US$16.98 billion and imports US$15.46 billion, according to the National Statistics Agency (BPS).

"This surplus is the highest in the past three years after the one recorded at US$602.6 million in December in 2011," BPS chief Suryamin stated here, on Monday.

He added that the trade surplus was attributed to a trade surplus of US$2.34 billion in the non-oil/gas sector while trade in the oil/gas sector suffered a deficit of US$0.82 billion.

"The surplus followed an increase in the trade volume reaching 56.49 million tons in December, 2013, consisting of 12.33 million tons in import volume and 68.82 million tons in export volume," he pointed out.

The countrys trade surplus in December 2013 was driven by an increase in the trade surplus in the non-oil/gas sector reaching US$2.34 billion with exports recorded at US$13.58 billion and imports at US$11.24 billion.

Suryamin added that the non-oil/gas exports in December 2013 totaled to US$13.58 billion, up 3.09 percent from US$13.17 billion in the previous month of November 2013.

The hike in the non-oil/gas exports was driven by the rise in the exports of several commodities such as metal ore, ash and slag by 40.19 percent (US$975.7 million), followed by exports of non-knitted garment products by 29.39 percent (US$353.3 million), vehicles and their parts by 7.18 percent (US$362.8 million).

Based on export destination countries, the countrys exports in December 2013 mostly went to China, followed by Japan and the US respectively reaching US$2.36 billion, US$1.4 billion and US$1.3 billion, with their market share making up 37.19 percent of the countrys total non-oil/gas exports.

Exports to Singapore, meanwhile recorded the highest increase reaching US$309.2 million (43.76 percent), followed by exports to South Korea reaching US$81.3 million (17.97 percent), France US$9.1 million (11.23 percent), China US$151.4 million (6.85 percent) and to the US reaching US$85.9 million (7.14 percent).

Suryamin however stated that the governments efforts to increase its export markets have not yet been followed by a significant drop in the import value.

In December 2013 the countrys imports reached US$15.46 billion which was up 2.04 percent from US$15.15 billion in November 2013.

Compared to the same period last year, imports in the period were down only 0.79 percent, he pointed out.

Five goods that have recorded a drop in the import value are electrical machinery and equipment reaching US$113 million (down by 7.85 percent) and mechanical machinery and equipment reaching US$102.1 million (down 4.17 percent).

Non-oil/gas imports from the ASEAN countries meanwhile were still the biggest in term of value reaching US$2.23 billion (20.13 percent) and from the European Union at US$1.03 billion (9.20 percent).

The increase in the import value was caused by increasing imports of non-oil/gas reaching US$283.1 million (&.19 percent) driven by increasing value of imports of oil and gas respectively, at US$148.4 million (5.71 percent) and US$189.7 million (01.47 percent).

Imports of crude meanwhile dropped by US$44 million or 4.86 percent, he added.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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