Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga hopes that the inflation will not increase the interest rate too quickly.

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto hopes that banks that are members of the State-Owned Bank Association (Himbara) will not raise credit interest rates too quickly, following the increase in the Bank Indonesia reference interest rate (BI Rate) to 5.75 percent by June 2026.

After attending a meeting with Himbara's Board of Directors and Commissioners with President Prabowo Subianto, at the Presidential Palace Complex, Jakarta, Thursday, June 18, Airlangga said the increase in the BI Rate had a transmission to the increase in bank credit interest rates.

"Yes, this relay has a transmission related to the increase in credit interest. Hopefully, of course, Himbara will not be too quick to raise it," said Airlangga, quoted by Antara.

Airlangga also hopes that banking credit activities will continue in the future, even though there has been an increase in the benchmark interest rate.

"Yes, of course, the hope is that in the future the credit will continue to flow," he said.

In the past month, Bank Indonesia (BI) has significantly raised the benchmark interest rate (BI-Rate).

In the RDG on May 19-20, 2026, the BI-Rate rose by 50 basis points (bps), making it the first increase in the first adjustment step after being maintained at the level of 4.75 percent since September 2025.

However, the rupiah exchange rate continued to weaken to reach the level of Rp18,000 per US dollar, so that BI-Rate was again raised by 25 bps through the Weekly RDG on June 9, 2026 or outside the regular schedule.

Most recently on Thursday (18/6), through the Monthly RDG, the central bank decided to raise the BI-Rate by 25 bps. Thus, the cumulative increase in the BI-Rate was recorded at 100 bps in the last month, bringing it to 5.75 percent.

BI data shows that the interest rate on loans in May 2026 was recorded at 8.72 percent while the 1-month deposit interest rate was 4.26 percent.

One of the Himbara banks, namely Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) has stated that it has not seen an urgent need to raise interest rates significantly in the near future amid a spike in benchmark interest rates (BI-Rate) in the past month.

"If we look at the long-term interest rate, we have not had a need to significantly raise interest rates until now," said Group Head of Liquidity and Funding Management Group BRI Teguh Sulistyono in a discussion with the media, in Jakarta, Thursday, June 18.