Indonesia's balance of payments at a deficit of US$1.1b for 2015

[JAKARTA] Indonesia's current account deficit widened in the fourth quarter to US$5.11 billion, while the balance of payments showed a deficit of US$5.09 billion, Bank Indonesia said on Friday.

The fourth quarter current account deficit was equivalent to 2.39 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), compared with a revised 1.94 per cent in the third quarter, the central bank said.

For the whole of 2015, the current-account deficit narrowed to US$17.76 billion, or 2.06 per cent of GDP, compared with a deficit of US$27.5 billion or 3.09 per cent of GDP in 2014.

But the balance of payments tipped into a US$1.1 billion deficit last year from a surplus of US$15.2 billion in 2014.

The current account is the broadest measure of a country's foreign trade in both goods and services. It is part of the balance of payments, which summarise an economy's transactions with the rest of the world.

REUTERS