Indonesia's trade balance with China has been in deficit since 2008. Increased domestic demand for imports from China, exceeding the growth of Indonesian exports to China, has widened this deficit with Indonesia's largest trading partner, as shown in the graph.
In 2008, Indonesia's imports from China increased by 78% to US$15.29 billion, while exports grew by only 20% to US$11.64 billion. As a result, Indonesia experienced a trade deficit of US$3.61 billion. This deficit continued to widen until 2018.
Last year, Indonesia's imports from China reached US$45.54 billion, while national exports to China amounted to only US$27.17 billion. This resulted in another deficit of US$18.41 billion, or the equivalent of Rp 257 trillion. Furthermore, during the January-August 2019 period, Indonesia's imports from China totaled US$28.68 billion, while national exports to China were only US$17.24 billion. In the first nine months of this year, Indonesia again experienced a US$11.44 billion deficit in trade with China.
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