Government Injects IDR 200 Trillion To Himbara Bank, Minister Of Finance Purbaya Makes Sure Not To Trigger Inflation

Minister of Finance Purbaya Yudhi Sadive. (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

Minister of Finance Purbaya Yudhi Sadive emphasized that the placement of funds of Rp200 trillion in state-owned banks (Himbara) will have a broad positive impact on the national economy.

According to Purbaya, these additional funds can encourage the banking system to work more actively in disbursing credit.

"If we look at the experience in 2021, the credit is still weak at that time. At that time the government added money to its credit system that could also grow," Purbaya told reporters at the Head Office of the Director General of Taxes, Tuesday, September 16.

He conveyed that by increasing funds into the banking system, liquidity will automatically increase and when liquidity increases, so that banks can lower deposit interest rates.

According to him, this has caused people who previously enjoyed keeping money in the bank because the interest was high, began to switch to spending their money when the deposit interest decreased.

In addition, Purbaya said that demand (demand) in the market will increase, and companies that were initially reluctant to borrow money due to high interest rates will start to dare to access credit because funds in banks are more available and interest is lower.

"But with the money, they have the courage to borrow money from the bank. This means that the demand and supply sides will grow together," said Purbaya.

According to him, this is the purpose of the policy that is encouraged not only to increase money in the system excessively, but to add liquidity to a measurable and safe level.

Purbaya estimates that the growth of base money (primary money) above double digits is sufficient to boost economic growth, without causing overheating or excessive inflation due to a surge in demand (pull inflation).

"So it should be with an injection like that the economy will run," he explained.

Purbaya menyampaikan pihaknya ingin mendorong agar sistem ekonomi bergerak seperti memberi bahan bakar agar mesin berjalan.

"Saya paksa sistem bekerja dengan saya kasih bahan bakar yang kalau mereka enggak pakai mereka harus bayar ke saya. Jadi ini sebetulnya prinsip dasar dari monetary policy," jelasnya.

Menanggapi kekhawatiran terkait potensi inflasi, Purbaya menilai hal tersebut belum menjadi ancaman dalam waktu dekat, selama ekonomi nasional masih berada dalam kondisi lemah, dana yang disuntikkan akan terserap oleh sistem keuangan.

Purbaya said that his party wanted to encourage the economic system to move, such as providing fuel so that the engine would run.

"I forced the system to work with me to give fuel, which if they didn't use they had to pay me. So this is actually the basic principle of the monetary policy," he explained.

Responding to concerns regarding potential inflation, Purbaya assessed that this had not become a threat in the near future, as long as the national economy was still in a weak condition, the funds injected would be absorbed by the financial system.

He added that inflation is only likely to emerge when economic growth is already above the range of 6.5 to 6.7 percent.

Some people say that the money in the system's inject will cause inflation. Yes, maybe in the long term and the money is mostly. Yesterday, we were sluggish, the economy with which the system would definitely be absorbed, and would not cause inflation until maybe in the next few years until our economic growth was above 6.5-6.7 percent," he said.