JAKARTA, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Indonesia recorded its weakest export growth in five months in August, official data showed on Wednesday, a potential sign that U.S.-bound shipments have been affected by President Donald Trump's tariffs taking effect that month. Indonesia's exports in August rose 5.78% from a year earlier to $24.96 billion, slightly stronger than the 5.5% growth forecast by economists in a Reuters poll. Exporters had front-loaded shipments to the United States in a bid to beat the tariff deadline, which helped bolster the trade surplus for a few months ahead of the tariffs kicking in on August 7. The United States, a major export market for Jakarta, set a 19% tariff rate on Indonesian products, in line with regional peers and well below the 32% first flagged in April. In August, imports were worth $19.47 billion, down 6.56% from a year earlier. The poll had predicted a 1.6% decline. The trade surplus came in at $5.49 billion in August, higher than the $4.0 billion forecast in the poll. Statistics Indonesia is due to release September inflation data and other economic indicators later on Wednesday. (Reporting by Gayatri Suroyo, Stefanno Sulaiman, Fransiska Nangoy and Stanley Widianto; Editing by John Mair) (The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)
