JAKARTA: Indonesian imports rose 17.65 percent to US$13.36 billion in March from US$8.89 billion in February this year, the Central Bureau of Statistic (BPS) said here on Monday.
BPS head Suhariyanto attributed the increase to 24.94 percent rise in the imports of commodities other than oil and gas to US$11.10 billion from US$8.86 billion in February, 2017.
Imports of oil and gas dropped US$211.2 million or 8.54 percent.
“Year-on-year, the imports in March also rose 18.19 percent from US$11.3 billion,” Suhariyanto said.
Meanwhile, imports of oil and gas were valued at US$2.26 billion in March 2017, or down 8.54 percent from US$2.47 billion in February, 2017. Year-on-year, the Marchs imports of oil and gas rose 45.70 percent from US$1.55 billion.
Cumulatively in the first three months of 2017 imports were valued at US$36.68 billion or an increase of 14.83 percent from US$31.94 billion in the same period in 2016.
The largest imports came from China reaching US$7.75 billion, followed by Japan from which imports were valued at US$3.42 billion and Thailand from which imports were valued at US$2.15 billion.
Meanwhile the country’s exports in March rose 15.68 percent to US$14.59 billion from US$12.61 billion.
The international trade in March, therefore, favored the country with a surplus of US$1.23 billion
Cumulatively in the first three months of the year, exports were valued at US$40.61 billion or up 20.84 percent from the same period in 2016.
