Indonesia's trade deficit stands "uncomfortable" at USD480m

Still a lot of hurdles to deal with.

According to DBS, external imbalances will remain a key consideration at India's monetary policy meeting. Notably, the trade deficit has remained uncomfortably wide despite narrowing to USD 480mn in November, compared to USD 1.54bn in the preceding month.

This has raised external funding concerns and has manifested in the form of a weakening rupiah. The currency has already weakened by about 5% against the
USD over the past one year.

Here's more from DBS:

Cyclical tailwinds are likely to help nudge the trade balance into surplus position in the coming quarters. Through a recovery in the Chinese economy, commodity prices are likely to get a moderate boost.

More recently, a preferential trade agreement has also been reached with Pakistan and this may double Indonesia’s palm oil exports to the country over the coming months. However, a return to a trade surplus position through the export route may take some time.

The central bank (BI) is likely to maintain a mild tightening stance over the medium term to moderate the pace of import growth. For today’s meeting, we expect no change in the policy rate, but note that pressure for a hike in the FASBI deposit rate is growing.

Reaching the people who run Asia's businesses is harder than it used to be.

Inboxes are crowded. Attention is short. The executives you most want to reach — the founders, CFOs, and operators who actually move budgets — are the hardest to find through the usual channels. If you're building a company, a category, or a reputation, you already know this.

We've spent twenty years building the room they read. Singapore Business Review is where senior decision makers in Singapore and across Southeast Asia come for business coverage they can't get elsewhere — in print, online, and in person at the summits and roundtables we host across seven markets.

If you have something these readers should know about — a point of view worth publishing, a product worth their attention, an event worth their time — we'd like to hear what you're trying to do.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia