Based on data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), Indonesia's trade balance recorded a surplus of USD 3.89 billion in December 2022.
Bank Indonesia (BI) views the trade balance surplus as a positive contribution to maintaining the external resilience of the Indonesian economy
"This positive performance has continued Indonesia's trade balance surplus since May 2020, although it is lower than the surplus in the previous month of USD 5.13 billion," said Head of the BI Communications Department Erwin Haryono in a written statement, Wednesday (18/1/2023).
Erwin conveyed that with these developments, Indonesia's trade balance in January-December 2022 as a whole recorded a surplus of USD 54.46 billion. This achievement is much higher than the achievement in the same period in 2021 of USD 35.42 billion.
"Going forward, BI will continue to strengthen policy synergies with the Government and policy authorities in order to further enhance external resilience and support national economic recovery," he said.
The trade balance surplus in December 2022 comes from the continued surplus in the non-oil and gas trade balance, while the deficit in the oil and gas trade balance slightly increases. In December 2022, the non-oil and gas trade balance surplus was recorded at USD 5.61 billion. This development was supported by the continued strong performance of non-oil and gas exports, which were recorded at USD 22.35 billion.
"The continued strong performance of non-oil and gas exports stems mainly from the increase in exports of natural resource-based commodities, such as nickel, metal ore and tin in line with high global commodity prices. In addition, exports of manufactured products, such as electrical machinery and equipment, as well as pulp from wood, also recorded an increase," said Erwin.
Based on destination countries, Erwin added that non-oil and gas exports to China, the United States (US) and India remained high and were the main contributors to Indonesia's total exports. Meanwhile, the oil and gas trade balance deficit increased slightly from USD 1.69 billion in November 2022 to USD 1.73 billion in December 2022.
