World Bank Records Indonesia's Short-Term Debt Surge Reaches 29.1 Percent In 2024

Rupiah (Photo: antara)

JAKARTA The World Bank also highlighted a significant increase in Indonesia's short-term foreign debt, which is estimated to increase to 29.1 percent in 2024.

This increase was mainly driven by the issuance of Bank Indonesia's monetary instruments, namely Bank Indonesia's Rupiah Securities (SRBI).

In its latest report, the International Debt Report 2025, the World Bank noted that Indonesia's short-term foreign debt stock reached US$65.1 billion at the end of 2024, up from US$50.45 billion at the end of 2023.

"This sharp spike reflects the issuance of short-term securities by Bank Indonesia [SRBI] which was introduced in August 2023 as a step to support monetary policy, maintain rupiah value during the market volatility period, and attract foreign capital," the World Bank wrote in its report, quoted on Friday, December 5.

Meanwhile, short-term debt of US$65.1 billion is equivalent to Rp1,052.1 trillion (the end of 2024 exchange rate: Rp16,162 per US dollar) and represents 15.5 percent of Indonesia's total foreign debt which reached 421.05 billion US dollars.

The World Bank emphasizes that Indonesia's monetary policy also has an impact on the balance sheet at the regional level.

In the East Asia and Pacific region (excluding China), short-term debt stocks increased 12.7 percent to US$201.7 billion, which was largely driven by Indonesia's short-term debt increase.

In terms of the flow of net debt, the East Asia and Pacific regions (other than China) recorded 29.4 billion US dollars in 2024.

The World Bank noted that almost half of this inflow was a short-term debt to Indonesia, which jumped to USD 14.3 billion, even though Indonesia's average short-term debt increase in 2022'2023 was only USD 1.6 billion.

Overall, Indonesia's foreign debt position in 2024 reached 421.05 billion US dollars or equivalent to Rp6,806.3 trillion. The debt to export ratio was recorded at 135 percent, while the ratio to Gross National Revenue (GNI) was maintained at 31 percent.

Despite the short-term increase in debt, Indonesia is still considered to have strong capital market access.

In addition, the World Bank report notes that non-resident investors are willing to lend in domestic currency, which shows market confidence in the fundamentals of the national economy.

In addition to highlighting the debt position, the World Bank also appreciates Indonesia's efforts in data transparency.

In 2025, the World Bank launched a Japanese-funded pilot project to develop digital platforms, facilitating automatic information exchanges between borrowers and authorized creditors.

Meanwhile, this platform allows debt management offices to automatically transfer loan data to be validated and uploaded to local debt systems, an important step in improving state financing governance.