Indonesia’s Foreign Exchange Reserves Rise to USD $99.4 Billion at End-2013
Today (08/01), Indonesia's central bank (Bank Indonesia) announced that Indonesia’s official reserve assets stood at USD $99.4 billion at the end of December 2013, implying an USD $2.4 billion growth from the foreign exchange reserves at the end of the previous month (USD $97.0 billion). According to Bank Indonesia, these assets cover 5.6 months of imports or 5.4 months of imports and servicing of government external debt (well above the international standards of reserve adequacy).
Bank Indonesia (BI) stated that the accumulation of official reserve assets is expected to strengthen further external sector sustainability. One of Bank Indonesia's main tasks - apart from securing rupiah stability - is to reduce the current account deficit to a more sustainable level (below three percent of GDP). Based on the latest data, the country's current account deficit stood at USD $8.4 billion, equivalent to 3.8 percent of GDP in the third quarter of 2013. Although this is still considered an unsustainable level, the current account deficit did ease from a record USD $9.9 billion (4.4 percent of GDP) in the second quarter of 2013.
Indonesia's Foreign Exchange Reserves 2008-2013:
| 2008 | 2009 |
2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013² | |
| Foreign Exchange Reserves¹ |
51.6 | 66.1 | 96.2 | 110.1 | 112.8 | 99.4 |
¹ in billion US dollar
² at end December 2013
Source: Bank Indonesia
Further Reading:
• Indonesia's Trade and Inflation Data Cause Positive Start of the Year
• Indonesia's Foreign Exchange Reserves Unchanged in November 2013
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