JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia booked a $3.45 billion merchandise trade surplus in January, bigger than expected, amid surprisingly weak imports, official data showed on Monday.
A Reuters poll of analysts had expected a surplus of $1.91 billion for January.
Imports last month were worth $18 billion, down 2.67% from the same month a year earlier, in contrast with analysts’ forecast of a 9.95% growth.
Exports rose 4.68% on an annual basis in January to $21.45 billion, compared with 6.99% growth expected in the poll.
(Reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman, Gayatri Suroyo and Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by John Mair, Martin Petty)
