JAKARTA- Indonesia’s September trade surplus beat forecasts at $4.99 billion, as exports and imports grew at a slower than expected pace, data from the statistics bureau showed on Monday.
A Reuters poll had expected a $4.84 billion surplus in September, compared with a $5.76 billion surplus in the previous month.
Southeast Asia’s largest economy has been enjoying an export boom due to high commodity prices globally, reporting a trade surplus every month since May 2020.
But as some prices have started to moderate, including those of Indonesia’s main export products such as palm oil and nickel, export growth has slowed.
Exports in September were up 20.28 percent on a yearly basis to $24.80 billion, compared with a 27.91 percent rise predicted by analysts in a Reuters poll.
There was a $1.4 billion month-to-month drop in the value of shipments of palm oil products, to $2.4 billion, reflecting falling prices as well as shipment volumes.
