REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA  - Indonesia's trade balance likely slipped back into deficit of around 300 million USD last month, central bank governor Agus Martowardojo said on Monday. He also said the current account deficit for this year would be around 3 percent of GDP. A previous central bank estimate predicted it would be less than 3 percent.

The governor told reporters that imports were still increasing, pointing to a wider deficit in oil and gas by the former OPEC member. In May, Indonesia posted a small surplus of 70 million USD.

Martowardojo said that the deficit was due to the high imports of oil and gas while export of non-mineral materials failed to reach target and demand of commodities was reported low.

According to Martowar dojo, imported oil is still high this year but, export growth or non-oil trade balance surplus has improved. 

Meanwhile, non-oil trade balance still experienced a surplus. Indonesian manufacturing exports, such as textiles, yarn, electronics, vehicles and vehicle equipments increased.

Export of natural resources in Indonesia is still depressed due to the ban on raw mineral export. The natural resources' export is recorded good in month to month (mtm) data, but declining in year to year (yty). 

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