Indonesia's External Debt Of US $ 416.6 Billion, Most Of It Is Private Owned

JAKARTA - Bank Indonesia (BI) informed that the position of Indonesia's foreign debt (ULN) at the end of November 2020 was recorded at 416.6 billion US dollars. Of this amount, US $ 206.5 billion was the external debt of the government and the central bank. Meanwhile, the largest portion is private sector external debt, including BUMN, which reached 210.1 billion US dollars.

"With these developments, Indonesia's external debt growth at the end of November 2020 was recorded at 3.9 percent compared to the same period the previous year," said BI in its release.

Meanwhile, the soaring foreign debt in Indonesia was caused by an increase in net withdrawals from the Government's external debt. "In addition, the strengthening of the rupiah exchange rate against the US dollar also contributed to the increase in the value of rupiah-denominated external debt," continued BI.

Furthermore, the position of Government external debt at the end of November 2020 grew 2.5 percent to US $ 203.7 billion, higher than the growth in October 2020 of 0.3 percent (yoy).

This development was influenced by maintained investor confidence, which encouraged foreign capital inflows in the Government Securities (SBN) market, as well as withdrawal of some foreign loan commitments to support the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and the National Economic Recovery (PEN) program.

In terms of private external debt, it is said that growth was slow compared to the previous month. The growth of private external debt at the end of November 2020 was recorded at 5.2 percent, lower than the growth in the previous month of 6.4 percent.

By sector, the largest external debt with a share of 77 percent of total private external debt came from the financial services and insurance sector, the electricity, gas, steam / hot and cold air (LGA) procurement sector, the manufacturing sector, and the mining and quarrying sector.

To note, the ratio of Indonesia's external debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at the end of November 2020 was 39.1 percent, relatively stable compared to the ratio in the previous month of 38.8 percent. "The structure of Indonesia's external debt remains healthy supported by the application of prudential principles in management, "said the monetary authority.