01/10/2007 (AFX News Limited), JAKARTA - Indonesia's trade surplus in August narrowed to 2.76 billion US dollars from 3.55 billion dollars in July as imports picked up pace while exports slowed from the preceding month, Central Bureau of Statistics chairman Rusman Heriawan said Monday.

He said exports slipped to 9.61 billion US dollars from 9.81 billion dollars in July while imports rose to 6.85 billion dollars from 6.26 billion dollars.

The trade surplus for August was lower than expected with economists surveyed by Thomson Financial looking for a surplus of between 3.17-3.66 billion US dollars.

In August 2006, exports were 8.91 billion US dollars while imports reached 5.70 billion dollars.

Data from the statistics bureau shows the month-on-month export fall in August 2007 was due to a 3.3 percent drop in non-oil and gas exports to 7.75 billion US dollars.

Meanwhile, oil and gas exports rose 3.2 percent from July to 1.85 billion dollars.

Heriawan said August's drop in non-oil and gas exports was driven by a steep decline in exports of mineral fuels to 591.4 million US dollars in the month from 814.9 mln US dollars in July.

He said the decline was partly capped by a rise in exports of mechanical machineries to 431.5 million US dollars in August from 386.5 million the month before.

As for imports, data shows that oil and gas imports rose 6.7 percent month-on-month to 1.78 billion US dollars in August this year while non-oil and gas imports increased 10.4 percent to 5.07 billion dollars.

Imports of raw materials rose to 5.19 billion US dollars in August from 4.65 billion dollars the preceding month; imports of capital goods was flat at 1.01 billion dollars against 1.02 billion; while imports of consumer goods increased to 646.7 million US dollars from 589.1 million previously.

The cumulative exports for the first eight months of this year reached 73.35 billion US dollars, up 13.4 percent from a year ago, with non-oil and gas exports amounting to 59.91 billion dollars, up 19.0 percent year-on-year.

The cumulative imports for eight months amounted to 46.82 billion US dollars, up 16.9 percent from a year ago. Non-oil and gas imports reached 33.99 billion dollars, up 23.8 percent year-on-year.

Vegetable and animal oil and fats exports, that was mainly comprised of crude palm oil (CPO), made up about 9.0 percent of the cumulative non-oil and gas exports in the first eight months of this year, with exports value of 5.39 billion US dollars, up from 3.54 billion dollars a year earlier.

Japan was the biggest destination of Indonesian non-oil and gas exports in January-August period, with exports of 7.31 billion US dollars. The US and Singapore came in second and third with exports reaching 7.11 billion and 5.12 billion US dollars respectively.

(1 US dollar = 9,137 rupiah)