JAKARTA: Indonesia’s September trade surplus beat forecasts at $4.99 billion, as exports and imports grew at a slower than expected pace, data from the statistics bureau showed on Monday.

A Reuters poll had expected a $4.84 billion surplus in September, compared with a $5.76 billion surplus in the previous month.

Southeast Asia’s largest economy has been enjoying an export boom due to high commodity prices globally, reporting a trade surplus every month since May 2020.

But as some prices have started to moderate, including those of Indonesia’s main export products such as palm oil and nickel, export growth has slowed.

Exports in September were up 20.28% on a yearly basis to $24.80 billion, compared with a 27.91% rise predicted by analysts in a Reuters poll.

There was a $1.4 billion month-to-month drop in the value of shipments of palm oil products, to $2.4 billion, reflecting falling prices as well as shipment volumes.

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Cushioning this was shipments of coal, Indonesia’s top commodity, which remained high at $4.2 billion.

Coal prices stayed near an all time high last month, while exports to China rose 41.2% on a monthly basis to $949.08 million - which analysts said was related to demand ahead of the Communist Party Congress.

There was also a significant increase in coal shipments to countries in the European Union.

Indonesia’s imports increased 22.02% in September to $19.81 billion, compared with the poll’s 31.48% growth expectation.