Bank Indonesia (BI) stated that the accumulation of official reserve assets is expected to strengthen further external sector sustainability. One of Bank Indonesia's main tasks - apart from securing rupiah stability - is to reduce the current account deficit to a more sustainable level (below three percent of GDP). Based on the latest data, the country's current account deficit stood at USD $8.4 billion, equivalent to 3.8 percent of GDP in the third quarter of 2013. Although this is still considered an unsustainable level, the current account deficit did ease from a record USD $9.9 billion (4.4 percent of GDP) in the second quarter of 2013.


Indonesia's Foreign Exchange Reserves 2008-2013:

     2008    2009
   2010    2011    2012    2013²
Foreign Exchange
Reserves¹
   51.6    66.1    96.2   110.1   112.8     99.4

¹ in billion US dollar
² at end December 2013
Source: Bank Indonesia


Further Reading:

Indonesia's Trade and Inflation Data Cause Positive Start of the Year
Indonesia's Foreign Exchange Reserves Unchanged in November 2013

Bahas