JAKARTA. Indonesia recorded a non-oil and gas trade deficit with China of US$ 11.05 billion during the first seven months of this year or until July 2019. The deficit was higher than the record from the same period of last year of US$ 10.33 billion.
Data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) showed that as of July 2019, non-oil and gas imports from China reached US$ 24.73 billion or 29.08% of Indonesia's total imports. On the other hand, Indonesia's exports to China were only US$ 13.68 billion or 15.53% of total exports.
BPS data further revealed that Indonesia's trade balance against China is in a deficit of US$ 1.8 billion. That number is lower than the record from the same month of the previous year of US$ 2.07 billion.
Despite this, the accumulated deficit to date still increased due to trading activities at the beginning of the year. According to the record, the deficit in the first quarter of 2019 reached US$ 5.18 billion, or far higher than the record from the same period of last year of US$ 3.82 billion.
Head of BPS, Suhariyanto, revealed that Indonesia's trade deficit with China became worse in January-July 2019. Therefore, the government and related parties need to be aware of the economic slowdown in the destination country and fix internal problems. (AM/AR)