Indonesia has seen a sharp increase in its international reserves holdings in recent years. Reserves have increased from less than $10 billion (6 percent of GDP) in the early 1990s to $120 billion (14.8 percent of GDP) as of June 2011. The pace of accumulation has picked up in the past two years owing to large capital inflows, as well as consistent current account surpluses. This trend is not unique to Indonesia. For emerging Asia as a whole, reserves have increased seven times in nominal terms since the Asian financial crisis of 1997–98. Even excluding China, reserves increased by the equivalent of 10 percentage points of GDP during the 2000–10 period (Figure 5.1).
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