Bank Indonesia Confirms The Disbursement Of IDR 90 Trillion Funds From The IMF Is Not Debt

JAKARTA - Bank Indonesia (BI) has issued a firm statement regarding the involvement of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in increasing Indonesia's foreign exchange reserves.

The central bank reported that in August 2021 foreign exchange reserves rose to 144.8 billion US dollars from the previous 137.3 billion US dollars in July 2021.

It is known that the surge of 7.5 billion US dollars in a month was mainly supported by IMF funds of 6.31 billion US dollars or approximately IDR 90.2 trillion through the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) scheme.

Head of BI's International Department, Doddy Zulverdi, said that the funds were not debt but financial facilities intended for countries that are members of the IMF.

"This is not a debt because there is no obligation to repay it within a certain period of time", he said in a webinar held on Wednesday, September 8.

According to Doddy, financial support from this global institution was not only received by Indonesia but also many other countries in the world.

“This assistance was distributed to a number of countries such as Japan, the United States, and European member countries. Of course, the amount of value received depends on the quota of the country concerned, for example, America receives the largest and we receive the smaller one”, he said.

Doddy added that the support was intended to provide a cushion for member countries to strengthen foreign exchange reserves in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Doddy also denied that the disbursement of funds received by Indonesia was an initiative of the government or the central bank.

"The position of our Indonesian foreign exchange reserves is still in a safe condition and is in a trend of increasing value throughout this year", he stressed

Doddy's statement is quite reasonable. The reason is, with the amount of foreign exchange reserves of 144.8 billion US dollars, Indonesia is able to finance 9.1 months of imports or 8.7 months of imports and payment of government foreign debt. This means that Indonesia's ability is above the international adequacy standard of about 3 months of imports.