Indonesia witnesses trade surplus in June on falling import

Indonesia posted a trade surplus in June, the seventh month in a row, as imports fell sharply in the biggest economy in the Southeast Asia, national statistic bureau announced here on Wednesday.

The bureau's chief Suryamin told a press conference that Indonesia witnessed lower trade surplus of 477 million U.S. dollars in June compared with a revised 1.08 billion U.S. dollars in May.

Both export and import fell in June, but import decrease much steeper than the fall in export.

Import scaled down by 17.42 percent to 12.96 billion U.S. dollars in June from a year earlier and export was down by 12.78 percent to 13.44 billion U.S. dollars in June, on year, said Suryamin.

"The trade surplus in June reached 477 million U.S. dollars. This surplus happened because of a steep decrease in import," he said in the bureau headquarters.

Indonesia's exports have been subdued in recent months due to falling demand on the country's export products.

Indonesia is the world's largest exporter of palm oil, thermal coal, and the world's third biggest exporter of rubber and cocoa, as well as home to the world's second-biggest copper mine.

Lower export along with slowing development spending has contributed to the slow of Indonesia's economy recently.

In the first quarter, the country's GDP growth slowed to the lowest in six years, 4.71 percent.