JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia’s trade surplus is seen to narrow slightly in October to $3 billion from the previous month, as exports are still expected to weaken, a Reuters poll showed on Tuesday.
The poll, conducted with 19 economists between Nov. 8 and Nov. 14, showed trade surplus of $3 billion last month, compared with $3.42 billion in September.
The largest economy in Southeast Asia has seen its trade surplus weakening in recent months due to falling commodity prices and a global economic slowdown that hurts demand.
Indonesia is the world’s major exporter of top commodities such as thermal coal and palm oil.
Exports were seen contracting 15.35% in October, compared with a sharper drop of 16.17% in the previous month.
Meanwhile, imports in October were seen to book a smaller contraction of 7.40% versus 12.45% drop in September.
(Polling by Milounee Purohit; Writing by Stefanno Sulaiman; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
