"The deficit in the first quarter was 0.99 percent of GDP and in the second quarter will be two percent but throughout the year it will be below 1.9 percent," Bank Indonesia Governor Agus Martowardojo said before the parliament here on Monday.
Compared to last year, if BI forecast is correct, the current account deficit will be better because in the same period past year the deficit expanded to US$4.8 billion or 2.2 percent of GDP.
Agus did not tell the cause of the expansion this year but he believed in the third and fourth quarters it will decline so that by the end of the year it will shrink to 1.8 to 1.9 of the GDP or around US$16.3 billion like in 2016.
"By the end of the year it will decline to 1.8 to 1.9 of GDP," he said.
Before Commission XI of the House of Representatives Agus said the deficit in the first quarter this year was cause by the flow of primary income abroad to pay government debts interests and dividends.
In the first semester of 2017 the deficit of primary income account was recorded at US$7.5 billion. (*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2017
