Indonesia posts US$4.5b surplus in 2016 balance of payments

[JAKARTA] Indonesia had a US$4.5 billion surplus in its balance of payments in the final quarter of 2016 as the capital and financial accounts' surplus was sufficient to cover the gap in its current account, data from the central bank showed on Friday.

The current account deficit in the fourth quarter was US$1.8 billion, or 0.8 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), compared with a revised deficit of 1.9 per cent in the previous quarter, Bank Indonesia (BI) said in a report.

The surplus in Indonesia's capital and financial accounts was US$6.8 billion in October-December, smaller than the third quarter's US$10.6 billion surplus.

Repatriated assets under a tax amnesty contributed to the surplus, the bank said. During the period, Indonesia also saw capital outflows after the US presidential election.

For the whole of 2016, Southeast Asia's largest economy posted a US$12.1 billion surplus in its balance of payments, the BI also said, while the current account deficit was equivalent to 1.8 per cent of GDP.

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