Exports up 3.43 percen

The country's exports increased by 3.43 percent in March to US$5.07 billion from $4.90 billion in February, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported on Tuesday.

The agency said that the increase was driven by higher exports of oil and gas commodities and non-oil and gas products.

But BPS said that exports in the first quarter of this year (January to March) slightly declined by 0.89 percent from the same period last year mainly on lower oil and gas export value.

Oil and gas exports in March bounced back to $1.19 billion compared to February's $1.13 billion due to a 9.94 percent and 3.49 percent increase in exports of crude oil and natural gas, respectively.

Non-oil and gas exports during the month recorded a 2.86 percent increase from $3.76 billion to $3.87 billion.

The government has set a total export target of $59.4 billion for this year.

Elsewhere, BPS said that imports in March rose 8.3 percent to $3.13 billion from $2.89 billion in February. The import figure jumped by 11 percent from $2.82 billion in March of last year.

The higher import caused the country's trade surplus for the month to fall to $1.94 billion from $2.01 billion in February.

Some analysts have said that the higher import figure could signal more active business activities. -- JP