The Impact of Monetary Policy and Macroeconomic Indicators on the Current Account in Developing ASEAN

Abstract

The current account balance is a component of the balance of payments, in which a surplus or deficit is a form of a country’s external balance or imbalance. Since the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, several countries, especially developing countries, have experienced external imbalances, which is related to a continuous pattern of transactions with the rest of the world. Developing countries in the ASEAN region are often vulnerable to experiencing external imbalances which are reflected in their current account balance, which every year the country continues to fluctuate and tends to decrease until it experiences a current account deficit. This research was conducted to analyze the impact of monetary policy and macroeconomic indicators on the current account situation of developing countries in the ASEAN region during the 15 year period of 2007–2021. The Current Account Balance as the dependent variable and the independent variable uses Interest Rates in explaining monetary policy and macroeconomic variables including Exchange Rate, Inflation, Gross Domestic Product, Foreign Direct Investment, and Trade Openness. This study analyzes long-term and short-term effects using the VECM panel model. The results show that Interest Rates in the short term has no effect, but in the longer term has a significant negative effect. The Exchange Rate in the short term and long term have a significant positive effect. Inflation and GDP have no effect in the short term but have a significant negative effect in the long term. FDI has a significant positive effect in the short term and the long term. And finally, Trade Openness in the short term has a significant positive and in the long term has a significant negative effect. Keywords: current account balance, interest rate, macroeconomic, VECM panel