Bank Indonesia Notes That Indonesia's Foreign Debt Has Fallen Thanks to the Repayment of SBN

Rupiah (photo: dock. Antara)

JAKARTA - Bank Indonesia (BI) noted that Indonesia's external debt (ULN) position in January 2024 was 405.7 billion US dollars or a decrease compared to the position of external debt in December 2023 which was 408.1 billion US dollars.

Executive Director, Head of the BI Communications Department, Erwin Haryono, revealed that on an annual basis, Indonesia's external debt position grew by 0.04 percent (yoy), slowing down compared to growth in the previous month of 2.9 percent (yoy).

Erwin said that this decline was contributed by a decrease in public and private sector external debt.

According to Erwin, the government's external debt position in January 2024 was recorded at 194.4 billion US dollars, down compared to the position in the previous month of 196.6 billion US dollars.

"On an annual basis, the government's external debt grew by 0.1 percent (yoy), slowing compared to last month's 5.4 percent (yoy)," he explained in his official statement, Friday, March 15, 2024.

Erwin said that the decline in the government's external debt position was influenced, among other things, by the repayment of the maturing series of Government Securities (SBN).

Meanwhile, the position of private external debt in January 2024 was recorded at 196.7 billion US dollars, a decrease compared to the position in the previous month of 198.1 billion US dollars.

Erwin explained that on an annual basis, private external debt experienced a growth contraction of 2.6 percent (yoy), deeper than last month's contraction of 1.4 percent (yoy).

The contraction in external debt growth came from financial institutions (financial corporations) and non-financial corporations, which respectively recorded growth contractions of 3.2 percent (yoy) and 2.4 percent (yoy).