Current Account Deficit to Improve in Q4: Economists

Jakarta (Antara) - Economists have predicted that Indonesia's current account deficit will improve in the fourth quarter of 2014. On a yearly basis, the 2014 current account deficit will be lower than last year's 3.3 percent of the national gross domestic product (GDP), DBS Research Group economist Gundy Cahyadi said here Friday. The looming fuel price hike will slightly lower the current account deficit which reached US$6.8 billion or 3.07 percent of the GDP in the third quarter, Gundy said. "I think the current account deficit will decline to 3 percent at the end of this year," he said. But on a capital balance side, the implication of the increasingly higher capital outflow due to the absence of positive sentiment toward the macro economic data should draw attention, he said. (*)