Indonesia December trade gap seen halving on month - Reuters poll

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's trade deficit was seen shrinking by more than half in December, as exports likely rebounded and imports slowed, a Reuters poll showed.

Southeast Asia's largest economy revised its November trade deficit to $2 billion, the widest monthly gap since July 2018, as exports declined.

The median forecast of 12 analysts in the poll was for a deficit of around $930 million for December, as exports increased 1.81 percent year-on-year, after a 2.80 percent decline in November.

Meanwhile, imports were expected to have risen faster than exports, at 6.60 percent on an annual basis, but slower than November's 11.83 percent increase.

Falling global oil prices and a reduction of workdays due to Christmas and New Year holidays slowed import growth, said Maybank Indonesia's economist Juniman.

Indonesian authorities last year took a slew of measures to curb imports after soaring bills hurt the rupiah exchange rate, which at the time was also under pressure due to capital outflows.

The measures ranged from raising import tariffs and delaying big, import-heavy infrastructure projects, to raising domestic borrowing cost by 175 basis points.

(Polling by Nilufar Rizki, Tabita Diela in JAKARTA and Khushboo Mittal in BENGALURU; Writing by Gayatri Suroyo; Editing by Shreejay Sinha)