Commodities
Palm oil exports likely to rise from Indonesia
EVEN as the immediate future of the Asian palm oil market continues to be uncertain with producers and independent market watchers taking diametrically opposite views on the course prices would take, the numbers relating to production and stocks coming o ut of Indonesia signal a continuance of the underlying weakness. It is largely believed that palm oil output in Indonesia will continue to show a strong growth in the current year. Despite a large domestic demand base, the world's second largest produc er of palm oil will have a large export surplus. Recent weakening of the rupiah - the currency went below 11,000 against the dollar - will put additional pressure on the origin to expand the export volume. Brokers and analysts closely monitoring the In donesian market swear by the production forecast of a record 8 million tonnes (m.t.) in 2001, up from 7.3 m.t. last year.

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