August’s Declining Trade Deficit
August’s trade balance posted the deficit of USD1.02 billion, lower compared to the deficit of USD2.01 billion in July 2018. The declining deficit was attributable to the surplus of USD0.64 billion posted by the non-oil and gas (non-migas) trade balance. Meanwhile, the oil and gas (migas) trade balance posted August’s deficit of USD1.66 billion bigger than July’s deficit of USD1.23 billion. The hike in the migas imports, particularly crude imports sent August’s deficit higher.
Shrugging off Concerns Over Trade Balance
China announced the tit-for-tat tariff of 10% on the U.S. products worth USD60 billion. The tariff was lower than the initial tariff of 20%. The U.S. initially planned to impose the tariff of 10% on China’s product worth USD200 billion taking effect on September, 24th 2018 and hiking to 25% at the end of 2018. The lower-than-estimated tariff shrugged of the concerns over the trade war between the U.S. and China. Last week, rupiah’s exchange rate for the U.S. dollar was stable at around 14,800.
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