* reuters: // realtime / verb = Open / url = cpurl: //apps.cp./Apps/econ-polls? RIC = IDTRD% 3DECI selection data
* Jan’s exports seen at + 13.59% y / y, vs. Dec’s + 14.63%
* Jan imports seen at -2.77% y / y, vs. Dec’s -0.47%
* Jan traded f’cast of $ 1.68 billion, vs. Dec + $ 2.1 billion
* Trade data due at 0400 GMT on Monday, February 15th
JAKARTA, Feb. 11 (Reuters) – Indonesia is expected to post the ninth consecutive monthly trade surplus in January, but the amount is expected to be less than the previous month after growth in exports. trade slowed, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday.
The median forecast from 12 economists in the census was that Southeast Asia’s largest economy would record a trade surplus of $ 1.68 billion in January, compared to a surplus of $ 2.1 billion in December .
Exports recorded a forecast annual growth of 13.59% last month, compared to 14.63% a month earlier.
Imports were expected to show a contraction of 2.77% per annum in January, compared to a fall of 0.47% in December.
Indonesia recorded a trade surplus of $ 21.74 billion in 2020, the highest number in six years, as commodity prices rose and a faster economic recovery in China, its main trading partner, spurred off and with weak domestic demand pushing for imports.
Faisal Rachman, an economist at Mandiri Bank in Jakarta, said high commodity prices and a global economic recovery would further support exports, helping the resource-rich economy to maintain a trade surplus in the first half of this year.
“Imports will start to rise as economic growth accelerates” in the second half, he said, predicting stronger private spending and investment by then. (Voting by Nilufar Rizki, Fransiska Nangoy, Tabita Diela; Editing by Gayatri Suroyo and Ed Davies)