Balance of Trade in April Recorded Surplus Foreign Exchange Reserves as of May Reached US$57.9 Billion
	02-JUN-09
	JAKARTA: Indonesia's balance of trade in April 2009 recorded a surplus of US$2.08 billion, better than a deficit of US$250 million in April 2008. Head of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) Rusman Heriawan revealed the surplus in April was attributable to a sharp decline in import value compared to a decline in export value. The trade surplus in the first four months of this year even reached US$6.01 billion as Indonesia from January to April 2009 recorded US$31.49 billion in export value and US$25.48 billion in import value. "There was a surplus as import fell deeper than export. This signals that the amount of foreign exchange reserves in Indonesia's balance of payment will increase," he explained yesterday. Rusman informed Indonesia's export value in April indeed dropped 1.81% from March to US$8.46 billion. The export value also fell 22.5% from that in April 2008. The declining export value in April was attributable to a decrease of 1.74% in non-oil and gas export value from US$7.33 billion to US$7.21 billion. In the meantime, oil and gas export value also slid 2.21% from US$1.281 billion to US$1.253 billion. Cumulatively, Indonesia's export value from January to April 2009 reached US$31.49 billion, down 29.51% from that in the same period in 2008, while non-oil and gas export value plunged 22.68% to US$26.90 billion. "In the first four months of 2009, non-oil and gas export declined lower than export in general. This means that our oil and gas export fell sharper than non-oil and gas export due to low global crude oil price during the period." Start recover Separately, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati revealed the amount of foreign exchange reserves as of May 2009 had showed signs of recovery since October 2008. "The amount of foreign exchange reserves dropped the sharpest to around US$50 billion in July 2008. The amount has now started recover at around US$57.9 billion," she informed at a meeting with the House's Budget Committee yesterday. According to him, market confidence in the national economy over the past five months had started recovering following signs of global economic recovery. "Two indicators, namely the stock price index and the rupiah exchange rate, have been steadily improving over the past five months," she explained. The amount of capital inflow, she added, had also started recovering in March and April 2009. BPS recorded regional exports in the first four months of the year declined equally. Indonesia's non-oil and gas export value to Asean, Japan, the US, the European Union, and China, dropped by 28.3%, 28.9%, 22.8%, 20.4%, and 21.3%, respectively. (Bisnis/aca/dea/16)