Jakarta – The total value of Indonesia's 2002 imports is expected to drop by 10 percent year-on-year, an official said Wednesday.

"I forecast for 2002 imports will decrease as a whole from 2001 by about 10 percent," said the import division chief of the state Central Bureau of Statistics, Irlan Indrocahyo.

He told AFX-Asia, an AFP-affiliated financial news service, the main reasons for this were the slow recovery in the local economy, a weaker investment climate after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the US and falling exports amid the global economic slowdown. Many products made for export use imported raw materials, he said.

Indrocahyo said figures for the entire year 2001 were not yet available, but for the 11 months to November, Indonesia's imports fell to 28.7 billion dollars from 30.2 billion dollars the previous year largely due to a decline in the import of consumption and raw material goods.