In August 2023, Indonesia again recorded a surplus in the trade balance of USD 3.12 billion. The surplus exceeded the surplus in July 2023 by USD 1.29 billion. This means that Indonesia has recorded a surplus in the trade balance for 40 consecutive months since May 2020. This was announced by the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) on September 15, 2023 through its release.
The surplus in the trade balance was supported by a surplus in non-oil and gas commodities, which reached US$4.47 billion. The non-oil and gas trade balance surplus in August 2023 even increased further from the previous month, which was around US$3.22 billion. Meanwhile, the trade balance of the oil and gas sector recorded a deficit of $1.34 billion.
Acting Head of BPS Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti also revealed that compared to the previous year or year-on-year (yoy), there was a decrease in the surplus by 2.65 percent yoy from August 2022, which reached US$5.78 billion.
Overall, Indonesia's trade balance in the period from January to August 2023 reached 24.34 billion US dollars. However, this figure decreased compared to the same period in 2022 which reached 34.89 billion US dollars.
In August 2023, Indonesia's export value reached 22 billion US dollars, an increase of 5.47 percent when compared to July 2023. However, on an annual basis or year-on-year, there was a 21.21 percent decrease in Indonesia's exports compared to August 2022.
Meanwhile, the export value of oil and gas products in August 2023 reached US$1.32 billion, an increase of 7.5 percent compared to July 2023 which only reached US$1.23 billion. In addition, the export value of non-oil and gas products also increased by 5.35 percent, reaching 20.69 billion US dollars, compared to the previous month, which amounted to 19.64 billion US dollars.
On the other hand, the total value of imports also decreased in the month after experiencing an increase in the previous month. On an annual basis, the total value of imports also decreased. Indonesia's import value in August 2023 reached USD $18.88 billion, a decrease of 3.53 percent when compared to July 2023, which amounted to USD $18.57 billion. Compared to August 2022, the import performance in this month confirmed a decrease of 14.77 percent.
