JAKARTA, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia recorded a trade surplus of 5.09 billion U.S. dollars in June, a big jump compared to the previous month's 2.89 billion dollars, as the country reopened crude palm oil (CPO) exports, the Statistics Indonesia (BPS) said on Friday.
This Southeast Asian country banned the export of CPO commodities from April 28 to May 22 to control domestic cooking oil prices, but this policy has caused state revenues to drop drastically.
"The palm oil surplus was recorded at 2.74 billion dollars or contributed 54 percent to the trade surplus in June," BPS head Margo Yuwono told a press conference.
The archipelagic nation recorded total exports of 26.09 billion dollars in June, up 21.30 percent compared to May and soaring 40.68 percent compared to June last year.
Non-oil and gas exports in June were mainly to China (5.09 billion dollars), India (2.53 billion dollars), and the United States (2.46 billion dollars), while to the nine other ASEAN countries at 5.08 billion dollars and 27 European Union countries at 1.68 billion dollars.
Cumulatively, Indonesia's exports from January to June reached 141.07 billion dollars, up 37.11 percent over the same period last year.
Meanwhile, the value of Indonesia's imports reached 21.00 billion dollars in June, up 12.87 percent compared to May and an increase of 21.98 percent compared to June last year.
The main commodity-supplying countries to Indonesia in June were China (6.11 billion dollars), Japan (1.46 billion dollars), and Thailand (0.90 percent dollars), as well as ASEAN countries at 2.83 billion dollars and the European Union at 0.97 billion dollars.
From January to June, Indonesia's import value was 116.18 billion dollars, up 27.62 percent year-on-year. ■