Economist Reveals Deposit Interest Rate Reduction Trend Continues, But...

Head of Bank Permata economist Josua Pardede. (Photo: ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Bank Permata economist Josua Pardede opened its voice regarding the direction of the deposit interest rate amid the trend of easing monetary policy by Bank Indonesia (BI) and The Federal Reserve (The Fed).

According to him, although the policy interest rate began to decline, the adjustment of deposit interest rates took place gradually and was not direct or comparable to one in one.

"After BI and the Fed lowered interest rates, the general direction tends to fall, but the rate is gradual and not one-on-one," he explained to VOI, Wednesday, September 24.

Josua revealed that there are three main factors that support the downward trend in deposit rates, namely first, the transmission of interest rates has been seen in the money market and the yields of Government Securities (SBN), while BI has explicitly encouraged banks to adjust their interest rates down, so this is a strong signal that the cost of funds will decrease over time.

He conveyed the second, the latest data shows that the interest rate on rupiah funds began to subside where in August 2025, the average third-party interest rate (DPK) in rupiah fell to around 3.07 percent.

Meanwhile, the 1 month tenor deposit interest rate is in the range of 4.65 percent.

This decline is also in line with the decline in the new lending rate which was recorded at 9.76 percent.

Furthermore, the third, namely the loose banking liquidity condition also supports this downward trend, so that competition to raise public funds is no longer as tight as the previous year, as reflected in the industrial Loan to Deposit Ratio (LDR) ratio which is in the range of 86 percent and the ratio of liquid assets to DPK is around 27 percent.

According to him, this condition provides space for banks to lower the price of funds without disrupting credit disbursement.

Although the direction of the deposit interest rate tends to decrease, Josua emphasized, the speed of adjustments can be different between bank groups and product types.

Menurutnya, bank yang selama ini mengandalkan dana mahal cenderung lebih dahulu menurunkan porsi dana dengan special rate, yang sudah terlihat dari penurunan komponen harga pokok dana di beberapa kelompok bank daerah.

"Perbankan tetap menjaga marjin secara hati-hati, Net Interest Margin (NIM) belum melonjak dan bank masih diminta meneruskan pelonggaran ke suku bunga kredit, sehingga pemangkasan deposito biasanya berlangsung bertahap saat deposito jatuh tempo dan diganti kontrak baru dengan kupon lebih rendah," tuturnya.

Dengan dukungan arah kebijakan global yang cenderung longgar, kata Josua, peluang penurunan lanjutan suku bunga deposito dalam beberapa bulan ke depan masih terbuka, meskipun penurunannya kemungkinan tidak sedalam penurunan pada suku bunga kebijakan.

According to him, banks that have relied on expensive funds tend to first reduce the portion of funds with a special rate, which has been seen from the decline in the component of the cost of funds in several regional bank groups.

"Banks are maintaining margins carefully, Net Interest Margin (NIM) has not jumped and banks are still being asked to continue easing to credit interest rates, so deposit cuts usually take place gradually when deposits are due and new contracts are replaced with lower coupons," he said.

With the support of global policy directions that tend to be loose, said Josua, the chances of a further reduction in deposit interest rates in the next few months are still open, although the decline is likely not as deep as the policy interest rate.