Indonesia Trade Surplus Down at $900 Million in October, Short of Forecasts

Indonesia's trade surplus fell to $?900? ?m?il?l?ion in October from $1.76 billion in September, missing forecasts, as? imports outpaced exports?, official data showed Wednesday.

The median forecast of 10 economists polled by The Wall Street Journal was for a surplus of $1.63 billion.

Export?s totaled $15.09 billion, up 18.4% from a year ago and 3.6% higher than the previous month, the official Statistics Agency said. The sequential gain was driven in part by higher prices for coal, palm kernel oil and copper.

Imports amounted to $14.19 billion, 23.3% higher than a year earlier and up 11.0% from September. The sequential advance was fueled in part by a 75.9% rise in imports of intermediate goods and a 15.3% increase in those of capital goods.

?For the first 10 months of the year, exports rose 18.4% to $138.5 billion from a year ago and imports gained nearly 15% to $126.7 ?billion.

As a result, the country recorded an $11.8 billion trade surplus for the January-October period.

Write to I Made Sentana at i-made.sentana@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 15, 2017 00:16 ET (05:16 GMT)