JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia’s exports and imports may have plummeted in July, following an improvement a month prior, with global trade still reeling under the fallout from the coronavirus crisis, a Reuters poll showed on Friday.
The growth pace of exports and imports in the resource-rich country had improved in June after many countries eased coronavirus-induced restrictions, although demand was yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.
The median forecast from 14 analysts for exports to fall 16.65% on-year in July, compared with the previous month’s 2.28% annual expansion – which was the first growth since February.
Import contraction was seen accelerating to 22.48% last month, following June’s 6.36% drop, which economists said reflected weak domestic demand.
Southeast Asia’s largest economy had likely booked a $680 million surplus last month, compared with a $1.27 billion surplus in June. Forecasts were widely ranged, from a deficit $410 million to as much as $3.8 billion surplus.
(Polling by Nilufar Rizki, Tabita Diela, and Fransiska Nangoy in Jakarta, Shaloo Shrivastava in Bengaluru; Writing by Gayatri Suroyo; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
