It Is Revealed, Indonesia's Debt To China Rises 474 Percent In 10 Years: Now It's IDR 305 Trillion

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The monetary authority of Bank Indonesia (BI) revealed that Indonesia's external debt to China at the end of June 2021 was USD 21.24 billion or approximately IDR 305.9 trillion.

The book rose 474 percent compared to Indonesia's external debt to China at the end of the 2011 period, which amounted to USD 3.70 billion or around IDR 53.29 trillion.

However, Singapore is still the largest creditor country with a record until the first half of 2021 of USD 64.83 billion. Followed by the United States with 30.56 billion US dollars, and Japan 27.18 billion US dollars.

Indonesia's total external debt in June 2021 is USD 415.1 billion.

"In order to maintain a healthy external debt structure, Bank Indonesia and the government continue to strengthen coordination in monitoring the development of external debt, supported by the application of prudential principles in its management", BI said as quoted on Monday, August 30.

Especially China, Indonesia's external debt is known to have almost doubled in 2015 to 13.66 billion US dollars from the previous 7.86 billion US dollars in 2014.

This means that there will be an increase in external debt of around 5.8 billion US dollars within 12 months. Meanwhile, the increase in Indonesia's external debt to China in the last 10 years has averaged 1-2 billion dollars per year.

It is important to note that during this time period, the presidential leadership changed from Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) to Joko Widodo (Jokowi).

Just so you know, the number of the Republic of Indonesia's external debt is also a combination of the government and the private sector.

Meanwhile, the government's external debt until June 2021 is 205.0 billion US dollars. While the private sector (including SOEs) contributed 207.2 billion US dollars.

"The role of external debt will also continue to be optimized in supporting development financing and encouraging national economic recovery, by minimizing risks that could affect economic stability", said Bank Indonesia.