JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia’s trade surplus in February likely narrowed to $2.45 billion, despite a larger increase in exports and a small import growth, a Reuters poll showed on Friday, indicating that imports may have become costlier due to a weaker rupiah.
Southeast Asia’s largest economy has posted a monthly trade surplus since mid-2020, driven by a commodity boom. However, the size of these surpluses has been shrinking due to moderating commodity prices and weaker global demand.
The median forecast of a dozen economists, surveyed by Reuters between March 10 and March 14, showed the surplus declined to $2.45 billion last month from $3.45 billion in January.
Exports in February were expected to grow 9.1% year-on-year, much bigger than January’s 4.7%, while imports were seen rising 0.6%, compared with a 2.67% contraction in January.
At the start of February, the rupiah slid to its weakest level in more than seven months and continued to weaken against the U.S. dollar by the end of the month, reaching nearly a five-year low due to market reactions to U.S. trade policies.
(Polling by Veronica Khongwir and Vijayalakshmi Srinivasan; Writing by Stefanno Sulaiman; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
