Article "Economy In Brief"

“ RI posts $1b balance of payments surplus “

JAKARTA : Indonesia recorded a US$1 billion balance of payments surplus (1) Simple past tense in the fourth quarter of 2017 on the back of improving capital and financial accounts amid rising inflows.

            The overall balance of payments surplus throughout 2017 reached $11.6 billion, (2) Simple Past Tense indicating balanced external conditions supporting macroeconomic stability, said Bank Indonesia’s (BI) undersecretary for communications Junanto Herdiawan in a statement.

            Capital and financial accounts saw a surplus of $6.5 billion (3) Simple Past Tense in the fourth quarter last year amid investor optimism toward Indonesia’s economy and improvement in yields of domestic financial assets. How ever, the surplus recorded was lower compared to a quarter earlier.

              The lower surplus in capital and financial accounts was caused by several factors, (4) Passive Voice = Simple Past Tense the first being a declining surplus in direct investment, including in oil and gas.

             Another factor was a decrease in surplus of portfolio investment (5) Simple Past Tense because of outflows of foreign money in rupiah-denominated securities given the rising uncertainty in global financial markets in the early fourth quarter of 2017.

             However, the country remained to see rising capital inflows, (6) Simple Past Tense which helped drive its foreign exchange reserves to its highest point at $130.2 billion as of December last year, sufficient to finance up to 8.3 months of imports and foreign debt.

              The deficit in the current account, meanwhile, rose to $5.8 billion, or 2.2 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), in the fourth quarter of 2017. The deficit was higher compared to $4.6 billion, (7) Comparative Adjective = Simple Past Tense or 1.7 percent of GDP, recorded in the earlier quarter.

Reference :

The Jakarta Post (Saturday, February 10^th 2018)