Sharp Improvements in Indonesia’s Balance of Payments & Current Account Balance
Over the past decade or so many analysts – including us – have pointed out that the structural deficit in Indonesia’s current account balance is a serious weakness.
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Berita Hari Ini Trade
Over the past decade or so many analysts – including us – have pointed out that the structural deficit in Indonesia’s current account balance is a serious weakness.
Indonesia’s October 2021 export performance was impressive. Based on the latest data from Statistics Indonesia (Badan Pusat Statistik, BPS), Indonesia exported USD $22.03 billion worth of goods in October 2021, thereby setting a new all-time record high.
Indonesia’s August 2021 trade balance was quite spectacular with the value of the country’s exports totaling USD $21.42 billion, the highest export figure in ten years.
As expected, the trade balance of Indonesia showed a widening surplus in July 2021. According to the latest data that were released by Indonesia’s Statistical Agency (in Indonesian: Badan Pusat Statistik, or BPS), the country’s trade surplus reached USD $2.59 billion in July 2021, nearly doubling from the trade surplus one month earlier.
Before we delve into Indonesia’s June 2021 trade statistics, we first take a quick look at Indonesia’s full-year 2020 trade performance as Indonesia’s Statistical Agency (Badan Pusat Statistik, BPS) released its annual ‘Indonesian Foreign Trade Statistics – 2020’ report in the first week of July 2021.
While Indonesia Investments predicted the decline in imports into Indonesia in May 2021 – after Ramadan and Idul Fitri momentum had passed – we were surprised to see a significant drop in the country’s exports that same month.
On 5 May 2021, Indonesia’s Statistical Agency (Badan Pusat Statistik, BPS), released the latest gross domestic product (GDP) data of Indonesia, covering the first quarter of 2021. As expected, the economic recession persisted into Q1-2021 for Southeast Asia’s largest economy.
Although the overall trade balance of Indonesia in March 2021 showed the smallest surplus for the country in nine months – with a USD $1.57 billion surplus in March 2021 – this is probably something that goes unnoticed considering both the export and import performance of Indonesia were quite impressive in March 2021.
Last month we were still a bit pessimistic about Indonesia’s trade performance, with bleak imports into Indonesia being the main reason (while the country’s impressive export performance is nice, but essentially the result of Indonesia’s over-dependence on raw commodity prices, which is actually a structural weakness of Southeast Asia’s largest economy).
Indonesia started the year with another comfortable trade surplus. In January 2021 the country posted a trade surplus of USD $1.96 billion. Since May 2020 Indonesia has been recording an impressive series of big trade surpluses, each month. This is a positive matter for the country’s current account balance and the rupiah rate (and thus also supports risk appetite in the capital markets).
Artikel Terbaru Trade
On Thursday 12 June 2014 it was decided at the central bank’s Board of Governors’ Meeting to maintain the country’s benchmark interest rate (BI rate) at 7.50 percent, with the Lending Facility rate and Deposit Facility rate held at 7.50 percent and 5.75 percent, respectively. This decision is consistent with ongoing efforts to steer inflation back towards its target corridor of 4.5±1 percent in 2014 and 4.0±1 percent in 2015, as well as to reduce Indonesia’s current account deficit to a more sustainable level.
Today (02/06), Statistics Indonesia released various important economic data that provide more insight into the state of the Indonesian economy. Two of these indicators - inflation and trade - are discussed in this column. Head of Statistics Indonesia Suryamin announced that inflation in May 2014 rose by 0.16 percent (slightly higher than previously expected), while the April 2014 trade balance of Indonesia recorded a USD $1.96 billion deficit. These data were not well received by the market, evidenced by sharp rupiah depreciation.
The rate of inflation in March 2014 demonstrated that the ongoing downward trend persists. In the reporting month of March 2014, inflation was recorded at 0.08 percent (month-to-month) or 7.32 percent (year-on-year), down from the rates recorded in the previous two months at 1.07 percent (mtm) or 8.22 percent (yoy) in January and 0.26 percent (mtm) or 7.75 percent (yoy) in February. The declining inflation trend is further evidenced by a lower rate recorded in March 2014 than the historical average over the past six years at 0.24 percent (mtm).
Although Indonesia is the world's largest archipelago, contains an abundance of commodities and has the world's fourth-largest population, the country's export and import figures are still small compared to the world's leading exporting and importing countries (see table below). There are many - and much smaller - countries that post much more impressive import and export data. In terms of exports, Indonesia is too dependent on commodities (accounting for around 60 percent of all exports) causing problems in times of price downswings.
Fitch Ratings, one of the three major global credit rating agencies, estimates that Indonesia's current account deficit will reach USD $27.4 billion, equivalent to 3.1 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2014. As such, Fitch Ratings' forecast is more pessimistic than forecasts presented by both Indonesia's central bank (Bank Indonesia) and government. Both these institutions expect to curb the current account deficit below the three percent of GDP mark (a sustainable level). Global investors continue to carefully monitor the deficit.
The Indonesian rupiah exchange rate appreciated 0.14 percent to IDR 11,581 per US dollar on Wednesday based on the Bloomberg Dollar Index. The currency is now at its strongest level since 25 November 2013 as it regained trust of international investors. In 2013, the rupiah weakened sharply after speculation emerged that the Federal Reserve would scale back its quantitative easing program. In combination with the country's record high current account deficit and high inflation it led to large capital outflows from Southeast Asia's largest economy.
The central bank of Indonesia (Bank Indonesia) believes that the USD $430 million trade deficit that was recorded in January 2014 is a normal result taking into account the implementation of the ban on exports of unprocessed minerals (which reduces exports of materials such as copper and nickel) and seasonal trends as exports are always lower in January than in December due the end of winter peak demand for raw materials and ongoing contractual negotiations at the beginning of each year.
The rate of Indonesian inflation eased in February 2014. Inflation decelerated in February 2014 to 0.26 percent (month-to-month) or 7.75 percent (year-on-year), down from the previous month at 1.07 percent (mtm) or 8.22 percent (yoy) respectively. The drop in the inflation rate is attributable to central and local government policy taken to minimize the second-round effects of recent natural disasters, thereby bringing the inflation of volatile foods in the reporting month to just 0.32 percent (mtm) or 9.85 percent (yoy).
The Indonesian rupiah exchange rate had depreciated (0.15 percent) to IDR 11,665 per US dollar on Thursday (27/02), 15:00 local Jakarta time, based on the Bloomberg Dollar Index. Governor of Bank Indonesia Agus Martowardojo stated yesterday to expect the currency to stabilize near current levels in line with its economic fundamentals ahead of looming further Federal Reserve tapering. Analysts estimate that Indonesia's trade balance might deteriorate in January 2014 as the impact of the mineral-ore export ban kicks in.
The current account deficit of Indonesia is expected to ease further in the first quarter of 2014 due to a possible slowdown of imports according to Deputy Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro. This slowdown is estimated to be caused by the implementation of Indonesia's higher income tax on the import of durable consumer goods, effective from January 2014. However, the deficit will not ease markedly from the USD $4 billion deficit (equivalent to 1.98 percent of the country's gross domestic product) recorded in the fourth quarter of 2013.