Indonesia Trade Surplus Shrinks To $3.42 Bln

(RTTNews) - Indonesia's foreign trade surplus decreased in September from a year ago as exports fell faster than imports, figures from Statistics Indonesia showed on Monday.

The trade surplus shrank to $3.42 billion in September from $4.96 billion in the same month last year.

Economists had expected a surplus of $2.13 billion. In August, the surplus was $3.12 billion.

Exports logged a double-digit annual decrease of 16.17 percent in September, versus an expected fall of 13.5 percent. The decline was largely attributed to lower overseas demand for non-oil and gas.

Imports declined sharply by 12.45 percent from last year, which was much worse than the 5.5 percent fall expected by economists.

On a monthly basis, exports showed a decline of 5.63 percent, and imports were 8.15 percent lower.