PALMOILMAGAZINE, JAKARTA – The Ministry of Trade of Indonesia reported an impressive surplus in Indonesia’s trade balance for March 2024, with a surplus of US$ 4.47 billion. This marks a positive milestone, extending the streak of surplus months to 47 in a row since May 2020.
Minister of Trade, Zulkifli Hasan, attributed the increasing trade surplus to a rise in the non-oil and gas surplus, which reached US$ 6.51 billion, despite a decrease of US$ 2.04 billion in the oil and gas sectors. Major contributors to the trade surplus, totaling US$ 4.58 billion, included countries such as the United States of America, India, the Philippines, Japan, and the Netherlands.
“Singapore, Australia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea contributed to the deficit, which amounted to US$ 1.56 billion,” stated Zulkifli Hasan in an official statement to Palmoilmagazine.com on Thursday (25/4/2024).
Also Read: Indonesian Trade Balance Achieves US$ 2.02 Billion Surplus in January
Despite significant global challenges, such as sluggish economic development and decreasing demands from other countries, Indonesia’s exports demonstrated growth. In March 2024, exports from Indonesia reached US$ 22.43 billion, marking a 16.40 percent increase compared to the previous month.
“Though they decreased 4,19 percent to March 2023, they showed impressive performance knowing that the situation in the world is not fully recovered,” he said.
The increasing export value in March 2024 happened for the increasing non-oil and agas exports that reached up to 17,12 percent and oil and gas up to 5,62 percent compared to the previous month. The main sectors were processing industries, agriculture, mining significantly increase because some commodities got increasing price to many countries. They were gold, crude palm oil (CPO), coal, and cocoa.
Zulkifli also said that non-traditional countries had the chance to escalate non-oil and gas exports from Indonesia. The exports from Indonesia significantly escalated to Central Asia, Caribbean, West Africa, East Europe. These showed market diversification could be the effective strategy to face demand fluctuation in the world.
Though the exports decreased to few regioins, Ministry of Trade kept trying to expand export markets to non-traditional countries by making some breakthroughs.
In cumulative, the export values from Indonesia in January – March 2024 reached US$ 62,20 billion though being decreased 7,25 percent to the same period last year. It happened for the decreasing non-oil and gas exports up to 7,53 percent and oil and gas exports 2,81 percent. These were the same with the trade condition that was not recovered in the globe.
Even though there are challenges in the world, the surplus trade and increasing exports showed economic tenacity and adaptability in Indonesia when the changing dynamic kept happening in the world. The strategic ways to develop export markets and product diversification would be the key to reinforce trade position of Indonesia in the world. (T2)
