'Good News' From BI: Indonesia's Foreign Debt Is Below Rp 6,000 Trillion

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Bank Indonesia (BI) brings good news. The Indonesian monetary authority noted that Indonesia's foreign debt (ULN) was US$415 billion as of the end of May 2021 or equivalent to Rp5,976 trillion (exchange rate of Rp.14,400 per US dollar).

The debt position rose 3.1 percent on an annual basis (year on year/yoy), lower than the previous month's growth of 4.9 percent on an annual basis.

Head of the BI Communications Department Erwin Haryono said the amount of external debt fell 0.6 percent compared to the April 2021 position of US$417.6 billion. He detailed the government debt in May 2021 to reach 203.4 billion US dollars, or down 1.3 percent compared to the position in April 2021.

"This has prompted a slowdown in the government's annual external debt growth of 5.9 percent on an annual basis compared to 8.6 percent in April 2021," Erwin said in his official statement, quoted on Friday, July 16.

Meanwhile, private external debt grew by 0.5 percent in May 2021 to Rp208.7 billion. The increase was due to the growth in external debt of non-financial companies to 2.3 percent on an annual basis from 4.5 percent in the previous period.

On the other hand, the contraction in external debt growth of financial institutions eased to 6 percent. Private external debt comes from the financial and insurance services sector, the electricity, gas, steam or hot water and cold air supply sector, the mining and quarrying sector, and the manufacturing industry sector.

"Indonesia's external debt in May 2021 remains under control, as reflected in the ratio of Indonesia's external debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is maintained at around 37.6 percent," Erwin concluded.