BI Governor Candidate Destry Speaks Out on Widening Current Account Deficit
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Bank Indonesia (BI) governor candidate Destry Damayanti has spoken out about the current account deficit, which has reached the highest level in Indonesia’s history.
According to a BI report, the current account deficit in the second quarter of 2026 reached US$12.5 billion, or 3.3% of gross domestic product (GDP). In the previous quarter, the current account deficit was only US$3.6 billion, or 1.0% of GDP.
“In the long term, we face external sector challenges from our balance of payments,” Destry said during a fit and proper test with Commission XI of the House of Representatives (DPR) in Jakarta on Wednesday (26/8/2026).
The figure of US$12 billion is the largest current account deficit in nominal terms in history, or at least based on data available since the first quarter of 2004.
The previous record occurred in the second quarter of 2013, when the current account deficit reached US$10.13 billion.
The scale of the pressure is also evident when compared with the previous period. In the first quarter of 2026, the current account deficit was still at US$3.58 billion.
Within three months, the deficit swelled by approximately US$8.91 billion, or more than threefold. The widening deficit also pushed up the current account ratio to gross domestic product (GDP). In the second quarter of 2026, the current account deficit reached 3.34% of GDP, up sharply from 0.97% in the first quarter of 2026.
This position is the highest since the fourth quarter of 2018, when the current account deficit reached 3.72% of GDP.
In the first quarter of this year, Indonesia’s goods balance still recorded a surplus of US$8.21 billion. However, three months later, the surplus fell drastically to just US$1.32 billion. The decline amounted to US$6.89 billion, or around 83.92%.
The shrinking goods balance surplus accounted for around 77.31% of the total widening of the current account deficit compared with the previous quarter.
It was not only goods trade that deteriorated. Indonesia’s services balance also recorded the largest deficit in history.
In the second quarter of 2026, the services deficit reached US$5.89 billion, or a jump of US$1.5 billion compared with US$4.39 billion in the previous quarter.
The increase in the services deficit accounted for around 16.86% of the total widening of the current account deficit.
“So the homework is how to increase exports and services. This is always in deficit because services are always negative, so the current account is in deficit because the trade balance faces challenges and exports must be boosted,” she concluded.