Indonesia's Q4 current account deficit narrows to 2.81% of GDP

[JAKARTA] Indonesia's current account deficit narrowed to 2.81 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the last quarter of 2014 from a revised 2.99 per cent in July-September, a central bank official said on Friday.

Previously, Indonesia reported the third-quarter deficit to be 3.07 per cent of GDP.

The current account gap in October-December was US$6.2 billion, bringing the full-year 2014 deficit to US$26.2 billion or 2.95 per cent of GDP, said Hendy Sulistiowaty, Bank Indonesia's executive director of statistics.

The deficit for the fourth quarter was wider than the 2.61 per cent of GDP median forecast in a Reuters poll.

At times, the size of Indonesia's current account deficit has reached 4 per cent of GDP, which has worried investors and put pressure on the rupiah.

For 2013, Indonesia reported a current account deficit equivalent to 3.18 per cent of GDP.

Inflows to the country's capital and financial account managed to cover the deficit in both the fourth quarter and full-year 2014. The capital and financial account surplus was US$7.8 billion in the fourth quarter and US$43.6 billion throughout 2014.

The 2014 balance of payments showed a surplus of US$15.2 billion, while the surplus in the final quarter was US$2.4 billion.

The central bank also revised the current account deficit for Q1 2014 to 1.97 per cent of GDP, from 2.06 per cent, and to 3.97 per cent for Q2, instead of 4.27 per cent.

REUTERS