Imports Grow Faster Than Exports, Widening Deficit

Indonesia's import value in November 2018 grew by 11.68% to US$16.88 billion compared to November 2017, while export value decreased by 3.28% to US$14.83 billion. As a result, the national trade balance experienced a deficit of US$2.05 billion.

Faster import growth than export growth, as shown in the graph below, resulted in a trade deficit for eight months of the year.

The annual average (YoY) growth of import value for the January-November 2018 period was 22.19%/month, while export value growth was only 8.2%/month. This deepened Indonesia's trade deficit.

The large trade deficit was triggered by a widening oil and gas trade deficit, while the non-oil and gas export surplus narrowed. For information, the trade balance deficit for the January-November period this year increased by 61.93% to US$12.15 billion from the previous year. Meanwhile, the non-oil and gas trade balance surplus plummeted by 76.32% to US$4.64 billion from the previous year. In total, Indonesia's trade balance in the first eleven months of this year showed a deficit of US$7.5 billion.