Govt Plans To issue Third Package Of Economic Measures

Jakarta, March 6 (Antara) - The Indonesian government is planning to introduce a third package of economic measures to improve the performance of the country`s current account, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Hatta Rajasa said. "We are preparing a third package of measures. Hopefully, it can be completed in this first quarter," he said here on Wednesday. The third package of measures is designed in such a way that it will attract foreign investors to reinvest their profit in the country instead of bringing it back home, he said. "If the profit is reinvested in Indonesia, it will reduce (the current account) deficit," he said. Hatta said the government will also continue its oil-to-gas conversion program to reduce oil and gas imports which have so far contributed a lot to the country`s trade deficit. "Oil and gas imports will soar if we do not control them by accelerating the oil-to-gas conversion program. Apart from that, we have to increase exports. We are serious about controlling the current account deficit because we want to keep it below 2 percent," he said. To prevent the national economy from the impact of global economic slowdown, the government introduced a first package of economic measures in late August 2013. The first package of measures was aimed to curb the widening current account deficit, stabilize the rupiah`s exchange rate, maintain high economic growth, improve people`s purchasing power, and keep inflation rate in check. Later in December 2013, the government introduced a second package of economic policies to reduce the import of consumer goods and encourage exports. The two packages of measures have proven effective to lower the country`s current account deficit to 3.2 percent of the national gross domestic product (GDP) in late 2013 from 4.4 percent in the second quarter of 2013.