Indonesia records trade surplus as imports surge 21.84 pct in April

JAKARTA, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's imports rose significantly by 21.84 percent in April year on year, driven primarily by shipments of capital goods and raw materials, while exports increased by 5.76 percent, according to data released by the Central Statistics Agency on Monday.

Imports reached 20.59 billion U.S. dollars in April, with non-oil and gas shipments from abroad climbing 29.86 percent year on year to 18.07 billion U.S. dollars.

Imports of capital goods in April jumped 36.28 percent year on year to 3.91 billion U.S. dollars. Imports of raw materials rose 18.93 percent to 14.97 billion U.S. dollars, while shipments of consumer goods increased by 18.46 percent to 1.70 billion U.S. dollars in the same month.

China remained the biggest supplier of Indonesia's non-oil and gas imports from January to April, with a total value of 25.77 billion U.S. dollars (39.48 percent), followed by Japan at 5.04 billion U.S. dollars (7.72 percent), and Thailand at 3.13 billion U.S. dollars (4.79 percent), according to the data.

Indonesia's exports reached 20.74 billion U.S. dollars in April, with shipments of non-oil and gas products totaling 19.57 billion U.S. dollars, up 7.17 percent from the same period last year.

The largest export market for Indonesia's non-oil and gas products from January to April was China, with a total export value of 18.87 billion U.S. dollars (22.86 percent), followed by the United States at 9.38 billion U.S. dollars (11.36 percent), and India at 5.59 billion U.S. dollars (6.77 percent), the data suggested.

The trade balance in April recorded a surplus of 158.8 million U.S. dollars. Enditem