Indonesia's trade surplus rose by 44. 84 percent to 9.12 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter of 2006 against 6.3 billion dollars in the corresponding period a year earlier, according to the government data released Monday.

The Central Statistics Agency reported that total export in the period was up by 12.47 percent to 22.36 billion dollars from 19.9 billion, while import was down slightly by 2.54 percent to 13.23 billion from 13.58 billion.

In March alone, export value barely changed at 7.45 billion dollars as compared with 7.35 billion in the preceding month, while import fell 3.85 percent to 4.34 billion from 4.51 billion.

The United States, Japan, Singapore and China were the largest destinations of Indonesia's non-oil-and-gas export in the first quarter of 2006, amounting to 2.53 billion dollars, 2.37 billion, 1.78 billion and 1.03 billion, respectively.

The four largest suppliers of Indonesia's non-oil import included Japan, China, the United States and Singapore, valuing at 1.37 billion dollars, 1.07 billion, 918.4 million and 796.7 million, respectively.

Source: Xinhua