Bank Indonesia (BI) noted, based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Indonesia's trade balance in February 2022 again recorded a surplus of USD 3.83 billion. The surplus was higher than the surplus in the previous month which reached USD 0.96 billion. Head of the BI Communications Department, Erwin Haryono, explained that this positive performance continued Indonesia's trade balance surplus since May 2020. Bank Indonesia views the trade balance surplus as having contributed positively to maintaining the external resilience of the Indonesian economy. "Going forward, Bank Indonesia will continue to strengthen policy synergies with the Government and policy authorities, related to increasing external resilience and supporting national economic recovery," Erwin said as quoted from BI's website, Tuesday (15/3/2022). Sourced from an increase in the non-oil and gas trade balance surplus amid an increasing oil and gas trade balance deficit. In February 2022, the non-oil and gas trade balance surplus reached USD 5.73 billion, higher than the surplus in the previous month of USD 2.29 billion. "This positive development was supported by the increase in non-oil and gas exports from USD 18.27 billion in January 2022 to USD 19.47 billion in February 2022.
The increase in non-oil and gas export performance was influenced by exports of natural resource-based commodities, such as coal, precious metals, and tin, as well as manufactured products, including various improved chemical products,” he said. In terms of destination countries, non-oil and gas exports to China, the United States, and Japan remained high in line with the recovery in global demand. Meanwhile, imports of non-oil and gas are still strong in all components, in line with the continued improvement in the domestic economy. Meanwhile, the oil and gas trade balance deficit increased from USD 1.33 billion in January 2022 to USD 1.91 billion in February 2022, in line with the increase in oil and gas imports which were higher than oil and gas exports.
