Bank Indonesia Is Ready To Disburse IDR 224 Trillion To Assist The 2022 State Budget

JAKARTA - Bank Indonesia (BI) affirmed its commitment to continue to support the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN) in 2022. This attitude was conveyed by Bank Indonesia Governor, Perry Warjiyo, in a virtual press conference after holding the Board of Governors' Meeting (RDG) today.

According to Perry, the steps taken by the monetary authority to enter the country's fiscal system have been regulated in the Joint Decree (SKB) III between the Minister of Finance and the Governor of Bank Indonesia.

“SKB III amounts to IDR 224 trillion. This has been signed by the Minister of Finance with me, and is valid until the end of 2022", he said Thursday, December 16.

Perry added that the realization of the distribution of funds was by the needs of the government.

"Of course it is used for health and humanitarian funding (in the 2022 State Budget)", he said.

To note, SKB III is a continuation of SKB I and SKB II which are valid in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Meanwhile, the purpose of this synergy between the central bank and the government is to bear the shared burden of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic through financial operations.

By mechanism, later Bank Indonesia will buy Government Securities (SBN) released by the government both from the primary and secondary markets. This strategy was made possible thanks to Law Number 2 of 2020 concerning Policies for Handling the COVID-19 Pandemic.

For information, in the first SKB in 2020, the monetary authority recorded absorbing SBN of IDR 473 trillion.

Then in this year's SKB II, the latest data until December 14, 2021, it was recorded that the purchase of SBN was IDR 201.32 trillion. This figure consists of purchases in the primary market of IDR 143.32 trillion and private placements in November 2021 of IDR 58 trillion.