BPS reports improvement in key economic indicators

BPS reports improvement in key economic indicators

JAKARTA (JP): The Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) reported
on Friday another improvement in the country's economy, with most
of its key indicators showing promising trends.

Exports in July grew to another record high of US$5.35 billion
from $5.29 billion in the previous month, while August inflation
dropped to 0.51 percent as against 1.28 percent the month before,
the agency said.

Bureau chief Soedarti Subakti said that Indonesia's exports in
July recorded growth of only 1.17 percent from June; but in terms
of value, the country's monthly foreign trade was the highest
ever.

"The exports consisted of $4.2 billion in non-oil and gas
exports, a growth of 1.16 percent; and $1.14 billion in oil and
gas exports, a growth of 1.18 percent," Soedarti said.

BPS said that imports rose to $2.48 billion in July from $2.42
billion the month before, boosting Indonesia's trade surplus to
$2.86 billion from $2.77 billion.

Soedarti said that for the first semester of this year,
exports grew by 33.68 percent to $34.65 billion from last year's
first-half figure.

The agency said that non-oil and gas exports grew 26.9 percent
during the first semester of this year. Oil and gas exports grew
by 64.49 percent over the same period.

Soedarti said that the non-oil and gas exports were dominated
by 10 products, which made up 60 percent of total exports during
this year's first semester.

Of these products, she said, the main contributors were
electrical appliances (13.14 percent), which included audio and
video TV products; forestry and timber products (8.05 percent);
and mechanical products (7.4 percent), including computer
peripherals.

Indonesia's main export destination from January to July 2000,
Soedarti said, was still the United States with $4.48 billion
worth of goods, followed by Japan and Singapore with $4.06
billion and $3.11 billion, respectively.

BPS further reported that Indonesian imports continued to show
an upward trend as seen in previous months.

Total imports during the first semester of 2000 reached $16.19
billion -- an increase of 19.58 percent compared to the same
period last year, BPS said.

It attributed the growth to an 84.76 percent increase in oil
and gas imports. Non-oil and gas imports grew by only 10.2
percent.

It said that in flation in August was 0.51 percent, caused
mainly by a 9.63 percent increase in prices of education,
recreation and sports activities.

Senior deputy at the bureau, Kusmadi Saleh, said the beginning
of the new school year had prompted the education price index to
swell.

The year-to-year inflation rate -- which compares a month's
inflation rate to the same month in the previous year -- was 6.11
percent, while the cumulative inflation from January to August
was 4.71 percent, BPS said.

The agency said the inflation rate for the whole calendar year
could reach between 8 percent and 9 percent, as compared to the
initial projection of between 5 percent and 7 percent, due to
rises in public transport fares in September, and fuel prices in
October.

According to Kusmadi, the fare hike in September would cause
the inflation rate to rise by another 0.4 percent to over 1
percent.

The government recently announced it would raise
transportation fares in economy class by an average of 50 percent
for land and sea transportation beginning this month.

He added that the government's plan to raise fuel prices in
October would again drive the inflation rate upward.

"This might be somewhere between 0.5 percent to over 1 percent
on top of the regular inflation rate," Kusmadi said.

However, he said, the estimation did not include the impact of
higher fuel prices on manufacturing industries that depend on
fuel. (bkm)