Jakarta – Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution has blamed uncertainty in the global economy for the poor performance of Indonesian exports, which declined 20.6 percent in just one month.
"The world economy is a problem. The financial sector is also under pressure," Darmin said in Jakarta on Monday as quoted by kontan.co.id, adding that he did not expect a much better export performance in the coming months because of the global conditions.
Exports declined by 8.96 percent year-on-year (yoy) to US$11.78 billion in June, according to Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data released Monday. Import decreased by 20.70 percent month-to-month (mtm) to $11.58 billion but were up 2.80 percent yoy.
However, he said the country's trade performance was not bad, as it still recorded a $200 million surplus in June, the fourth this year after February, March and May.
Darmin considered that a good trend, which pointed to surpluses in the following months, as long as the country could control oil and gas imports. He added that oil and gas imports essentially determined whether the country achieved a surplus or deficit in trade. (bbn)