TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Bank Indonesia (BI) on Monday announced that Indonesia’s trade balance recorded yet another surplus in December 2022 by logging US$ 3.89 billion, which marks a consecutive surplus trend since May 2020. However, the December surplus was lower compared to the previous month which logged US$5.13 billion.

“With this development, the trade balance in January - December 2022 period overall recorded a US$54.46 billion surplus. This is far higher than what was achieved during the same period in 2021 which logged US$ 35.42 billion,” said Bank Indonesia executive director of communication Erwin Haryono in a written statement on January 16.

The surplus contributed positively to maintaining the external resilience of the Indonesian economy. 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, Erwin explained.

The December 2022 trade balance surplus originated from the continued surplus in the non-oil and gas trade balance. Meanwhile, the oil and gas trade balance deficit slightly increased. In December 2022, the non-oil and gas trade balance surplus was recorded at US$5.61 billion.

"This development was supported by the continued strong performance of non-oil and gas exports which were recorded at US$22.35 billion," said Erwin.

RIRI RAHAYU

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