JAKARTA :Indonesia recorded its weakest export growth in five months in August, official data showed on Wednesday, a potential sign that U.S.-bound shipments have been affected by President Donald Trump’s tariffs taking effect that month.
Indonesia’s exports in August rose 5.78 per cent from a year earlier to $24.96 billion, slightly stronger than the 5.5 per cent growth forecast by economists in a Reuters poll.
Exporters had front-loaded shipments to the United States in a bid to beat the tariff deadline, which helped bolster the trade surplus for a few months ahead of the tariffs kicking in on August 7.
The United States, a major export market for Jakarta, set a 19 per cent tariff rate on Indonesian products, in line with regional peers and well below the 32 per cent first flagged in April.
In August, imports were worth $19.47 billion, down 6.56 per cent from a year earlier. The poll had predicted a 1.6 per cent decline.
The trade surplus came in at $5.49 billion in August, higher than the $4.0 billion forecast in the poll.
Statistics Indonesia is due to release September inflation data and other economic indicators later on Wednesday.
