Current Account Deficit to Increase in Second Quarter, Says BI

BI Governor Agus Martowardojo.

Jakarta, 17 Shawwal 1438/11July 2017 (MINA) – Bank Indonesia (BI) has predicted that current account deficit in the second quarter will reach two percent of Gross Domestic Product or increases (GDP  by around 100 basis points from the first quarter recorded at US$2.4 billion.

“The deficit in the first quarter was 0.99 percent of GDP and in the second quarter will be two percent but throughout the year it will be below 1.9 percent,” Antara News quoted Bank Indonesia Governor Agus Martowardojo as saying before the parliament here on Monday.

Compared to last year, if BI forecast is correct, the current account deficit will be better because in the same period past year the deficit expanded to US$4.8 billion or 2.2 percent of GDP.

Agus did not tell the cause of the expansion this year but he believed in the third and fourth quarters it will decline so that by the end of the year it will shrink to 1.8 to 1.9 of the GDP or around US$16.3 billion like in 2016.

“By the end of the year it will decline to 1.8 to 1.9 of GDP,” he said.

Before Commission XI of the House of Representatives Agus said the deficit in the first quarter this year was cause by the flow of primary income abroad to pay government debts interests and dividends.

In the first semester of 2017 the deficit of primary income account was recorded at US$7.5 billion. (T/RS5/RS1)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)