Indonesia witnesses trade surplus in February

Indonesia recorded trade surplus in February for a third straight month as import weakened significantly, the national statistic bureau said here on Monday.

Head of the bureau named only Suryamin announced that the trade performance reached 700 million U.S. dollars surplus in February, slightly lower from 709.4 million U.S. dollar at the previous month.

Indonesia's import fell by 16.24 percent to 11.55 billion U.S. dollar in February on year, and was down by 8.42 percent on month, he told a press conference at the bureau headquarters.

Export persisted to be weak for the fifth straight month by 16. 0 percent to 12.29 billion U.S. dollars in February on yearly basis, and was down by 8.0 percent on month, said Suryamin.

Decline on Indonesia's shipment of oil and gas to overseas and weakening of global demand that hit prices on Indonesia's main commodities such as coal and crude palm oil, contributed to the weakening of exports in February, he said.

"Some commodities had decrease on their exports, besides, February is a short month," said Suryamin.

The biggest economy in the Southeast Asia, Indonesia, expects current account deficit to be at 3 to 3.5 percent of the GDP this year. Endi