Current Account Deficit 4.3 Billion Dollars

INDUSTRY.co.id - Jakarta - Indonesia's current account balance has a deficit of US $ 4.3 billion or 1.65 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the third quarter of 2017, down from the second quarter of 2017 of 4.8 billion US dollars or 1.91 percent of GDP, according to data from Bank Indonesia.

Indonesia's Balance of Payments Statistics, published in Jakarta on Friday, said the improving deficit was due to improved export performance, thus increasing the surplus of the goods trade balance.

"The trade balance of goods surplus 5.3 billion US dollars in the third quarter of 2017 or up 9.5 percent compared to the second quarter of 2017," said Executive Director of the Department of Communication BI Agusman, Friday (10/11/2017)

The current account deficit also improved due to lower dividend payments abroad and lower foreign borrowing rates in the third half of this year to improve the deficit in the primary income account.

"The current account deficit in Q3 / 2017 is also lower than the deficit in Q3 / 2016, which amounted to 5.1 billion US dollars," Agusman said.

For the capital and financial account in the third quarter of 2017, according to the BI statistics, it recorded 10.4 billion US dollars. That number increased compared to the second quarter of 2017 surplus of 5.8 billion US dollars.

According to Agusman, the surplus of capital and financial transactions has increased due to the large influx of foreign capital inflows into direct investment. The capital and financial account surplus in the third quarter of 2017 also increased compared to the third quarter of 2016 which amounted to 9.9 billion US dollars.

"This is because the direct investment surplus, in line with the increase in domestic investment realization, and the decline in other investment deficits, mainly due to the decline in capital outflow for placement of domestic private deposits abroad," said Agusman.

With the current account performance and capital transactions, Indonesia's balance of payments (NPI) in the third quarter of 2017 surplus 5.4 billion US dollars. Those number increased and compared with a second quarter surplus of 2017 that amounted to 0.7 billion US dollars dramatically.

The NPI surplus prompted an increase in foreign exchange reserves from 123.1 billion dollars at the end of the second quarter of 2017 to 129.4 billion dollars at the end of the third quarter of 2017.

"The development of the NPI surplus in the third quarter of 2017 as a whole shows the maintenance of the external balance of the economy," Agusman said. (Ant)