Indonesia's trade surplus narrowed to $3.36 billion in September from $3.55 billion in August, as imports grew faster than exports, BPS-Statistics Indonesia said on Monday, Nov. 2. Exports rose 11.87% from a year earlier to $27.59 billion, while imports climbed 18.41% to $24.24 billion.

The trend matters for investors in Indonesian assets because the goods surplus has long been one of the main supports for the rupiah. Over the first nine months of 2026, the country's surplus totaled $10.61 billion, according to BPS. In the same period of 2025 it was $33.48 billion, the statistics office's release from a year ago shows. A smaller cushion leaves the currency more exposed to portfolio outflows at a time when Bank Indonesia has already been intervening to defend the rupiah.

Indonesia's Exports Still Growing on Palm Oil and Nickel

The export side of the report was solid. Non-oil and gas exports rose 12.39% from a year earlier to $26.64 billion in September, Ateng Hartono, BPS deputy for distribution and services statistics, told an online press conference, according to Media Asuransi News. A year earlier, total exports were $24.68 billion and non-oil exports were $23.68 billion, BPS data show.

For January through September, exports reached $221.23 billion, up 5.58% from a year earlier, IDX Channel reported. Non-oil shipments made up $212.27 billion of that, an increase of 6.30%, while oil and gas exports fell 9.11% to $8.96 billion.

Manufacturing did most of the lifting. Exports of processed goods rose 8.93% over the nine months and contributed 7.15 percentage points to non-oil export growth, according to IDX Channel. Processed nickel, palm oil, agriculture-based organic chemicals, aluminium and copper posted the largest gains. By product code, animal and vegetable fats and oils, nickel and nickel articles, and mineral fuels such as coal were the main drivers of non-oil sales abroad. The government has been leaning on those commodities to meet its export growth targets.

China, the U.S. and India remained the main destinations for non-oil exports, Bank Indonesia said in a statement on the data. Indonesia ran its largest bilateral surpluses for the nine months with the U.S., at $14.26 billion, India, at $10.59 billion, and the Philippines, at $6.48 billion, IDX Channel reported, citing BPS.

Imports Are Rising Three Times as Fast

The pressure came from purchases abroad. September imports of oil and gas rose 23.94% from a year earlier to $3.27 billion, and non-oil imports rose 17.59% to $20.96 billion, CNBC Indonesia reported, citing BPS.

The pace is a sharp change from a year ago. In September 2025, imports were $20.34 billion, up 7.17% from the year before, and non-oil imports were $17.70 billion, according to BPS. That month exports grew 11.41%, comfortably faster than imports.

Raw materials and intermediate goods, the largest category, grew 24.65%. Consumer goods imports rose 15.98%. Capital goods, the category most closely tied to new factories and equipment, rose only 1.25%.

The nine-month figures show the gap more clearly. Imports from January to September totaled $210.63 billion, up 19.67% from a year earlier, against export growth of 5.58% over the same period. Oil and gas imports jumped 37.35% to $32.57 billion, and non-oil imports rose 16.92% to $178.06 billion.

Energy remains the weak spot. The oil and gas account ran a deficit of $2.32 billion in September, slightly smaller than the $2.54 billion in August, because imports of fuel fell more than exports, according to Bank Indonesia. Over nine months, the oil and gas deficit reached $23.60 billion, while the non-oil account posted a surplus of $34.21 billion, IDX Channel reported. The non-oil surplus in September alone was $5.67 billion.

Bank Indonesia Points to External Resilience

Bank Indonesia described the continued surplus as positive for the resilience of the country's external position.

The composition is less comfortable than the headline. Imports of raw materials can signal that factories are stocking up to produce more, which would eventually feed exports. But the jump in fuel imports this year, combined with slower overall export growth, has eaten into the surplus.

Hartono said the oil and gas sector was still in deficit, according to IDX Channel, The next test is October trade data from BPS, which will show whether September's smaller oil and gas gap holds.