Hendartyo Hanggi, Jakarta – Statistics Indonesia (BPS) on Monday reported that Indonesia's January 2021 trade balance saw a surplus up to US$1.96 billion which was boosted by larger figures of exports compared to January 2020.

"This position is better than January 2020's trade balance that saw a deficit of US$640 million or in January 2019 with a deficit US$980 million," said BPS Head Suhariyanto in a virtual press conference on January 15.

He explains that this is mainly due to the 12.24 percent export increase valued at US$15.30 billion compared to the previous year with US$13.43 import value. Suhariyanto hopes that the following months will follow this month's achievement.

However, January's export value is a 7.48 percent drop compared to December 2020 which recorded US$16.54 billion and is also a 7.59 percent drop compared to December 2020. "Import activities were lower than January 2020 and 2019," said the Statistics Indonesia Head.

Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/1432996/statistics-indonesia-records-us1-96-bln-trade-surplus-in-januar