JAKARTA, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia recorded a trade balance surplus of 36.93 billion U.S. dollars throughout 2023, the Statistics Indonesia (BPS) announced on Monday.
"This is the 44th month in a row of surplus since May 2020," BPS Deputy for Distribution and Services Statistics Pudji Ismartini, said in a virtual press conference.
BPS said that, however, the 2023 surplus was lower than the number it recorded during 2022, which amounted to 54.46 billion dollars, due to the decrease in the export and import values.
"Indonesia's exports during 2023 were 258.2 billion dollars, slumped by 11.33 percent compared to 2022 which reached 291.90 billion dollars, while the imports were 221.89 billion dollars, decreased by 6.55 percent from 237.45 billion dollars," Ismartini said.
Indonesia's top trading partner countries during 2023, to which it experienced surplus for goods trade, were India, the United States, and the Philippines, according to the BPS. ■
