Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesia posted a current account surplus of US$1 billion in the third quarter of 2020 after suffering current account deficit for nine years.
The country last witnessed a current account surplus of US$468 million in the third quarter of 2011, according to an official report of the Indonesian Balance of Payment Statistics traced by Antara on Friday.
Indonesia recorded a current account surplus in 2011 when its exports soared following a commodity boom in the global market. Thereafter, it turned into a boomerang for the country when the commodity prices plunged in the world market.
Consequently, the country's current account suffered a deficit of up to US$944 million in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Overall, the country recorded a current account surplus of US$2.07 billion in 2011, indicative of positive achievement of macroeconomic indicators that never repeated in the past nine years until the third quarter of 2020.
President Joko Widodo has frequently touched on current account deficit at different opportunities. He encouraged ways to improve the country's current account deficit, including accelerating the processing industry to produce goods with added value, so the imports can be raised.
Current account deficit is one of the indicators of external resilience of the Indonesian economy. This is since the current account deficit contained several components of Indonesia's payments to other countries, including the balance of services, balance of goods, and balance of primary and secondary income.
According to the official statement of Bank Indonesia (BI) released on Friday, the current account surplus was driven by the balance of goods logging a surplus coupled with an improvement of the export performance.
"The surplus of US$1 billion, or 0.4 percent of the GDP, was fueled by a surplus in the balance of goods," he added.
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