An employee at state-owned Bank Mandiri piles bundles of rupiah notes at the bank’s cash center in Jakarta on Sept. 30, 2014. (EPA Photo/Adi Weda) Jakarta. Indonesia’s balance of payments surplus rose 51 percent in the third quarter as the central bank and the government harness policies that place stability over economic growth, resulting in curbed imports.
Indonesia posted a $6.5 billion balance of payments surplus in the period from July to September, compared to $4.3 billion in the same period last year, Bank Indonesia announced on Friday.
“The decline was supported by stabilizing policies that were undertaken by Bank Indonesia and the government,” said Hendy Sulistyowati, executive director of economic statistics and monetary policy at Bank Indonesia.
Bank Indonesia has maintained its benchmark interest rate at 7.5 percent for the 12th month running, 1.75 percentage points higher than the same period last year — and allowed a more flexible exchange rate.
This has resulted in a slowdown of imports, which has brought the current-account deficit to a more sustainable level of total gross domestic product.
Global debt rating agency Fitch Ratings announced in turn that it would maintain Indonesia’s debt rating at BBB-, the lowest level investment grade the agency gives to a sovereign debt issuer.
“The authorities’ explicit and consistent preference for stability over economic growth since the ‘taper tantrum’-related market pressures in the summer of 2013 has strengthened their macro-economic policy track record,” Fitch said in a statement on Thursday.
Bank Indonesia’s Hendy said that positive investors confidence toward Indonesia’s economic prospects maintained a strong capital flow in to the country.
This resulted in a $13.7 billion surplus in the financial and capital account.
That offset the current-account deficit and helped to boost the country’s foreign exchange reserves to $111.2 billion at the end of September, up from $107.7 billion posted in June, Hendy said.
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