Indonesia`s Balance of Payments to Show US$10 Billion Surplus

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia`s balance of payments throughout 2016 would book a surplus of US$10 billion, rebounding after it collapsed with a deficit of US$1.1 billion in 2015, Senior Deputy Governor of Bank Indonesia Mirza Adityaswara has predicted.

"With the repatriation of assets and capital inflow, this years overall surplus amounts to $10 billion, or even more," Mirza said at the seminar on "Policy Direction of Bank Indonesia in 2017" Thursday.

Throughout 2016, Indonesias balance of payments recorded a positive trend with continuous surplus after deficit due to the external economic shocks in 2015.

However, there was a deficit of $300 million in the first quarter of 2016. The gap was due to the weak performance of the trade balance and the lack of improvement in the flow of foreign capital.

In the second quarter of 2016, the balance of payments had a surplus of $2.2 billion, while in the third quarter, the balance of payments recorded a surplus of $5.5 billion.

The repatriation funds from a tax amnesty program will be increasingly continued until the end of the year, Mirza believed. At the end of 2016, estimated commitments of repatriation reached Rp140 trillion.

Moreover, Mirza also saw the trend of trade surplus up to November 2016 reducing the current account deficit.

In the third quarter of 2016, the current account deficit narrowed to 1.8 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) or $4.5 billion.

The current account deficit throughout 2016 will be between 2 and 2.5 percent of the GDP, Mirza believed.

The balance of payments is an indicator of economic transactions between residents of Indonesia with foreign residents.

ANTARA