Indonesia trade surplus doubles in May, beats forecast

Indonesia's trade surplus doubled in May from the previous month thanks to stronger exports, a senior government official said on Tuesday.

Trade surplus, excluding imports to trade zones, rose to $3.2 billion in May from $1.59 billion in April. The surplus topped market expectations, with six out of seven economists polled by Thomson Financial projecting surplus of between $1.88 billion and $2.74 billion.

Exports rose 17.5 percent to $12.89 billion while imports, excluding those to trade zones, increased 3.3 percent to $9.69 billion, said Ali Rosidi, deputy chairman of the Central Bureau of Statistics.

Total imports including the trade zones rose 1.41 percent to $11.66 billion.

The statistics bureau started including bonded zones in computing the trade data only from January. Imports into the bonded zones are mostly processed for export.

source: Antara | July 2008