Indonesia Is In The Top 10 Most Debt Countries, Ministry Of Finance: Relatively Small Compared To G-20 Members

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) shakes hands with the former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde in 2018. (Photo: Bank Indonesia)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Finance assessed that Indonesia's debt is still relatively small compared to other G-20 member countries because the government has managed it carefully and accountably.

"The government manages debt with prudential and measurable principles," said a written statement from the Ministry of Finance, quoted from Antara , Thursday, October 15.

This is in response to the release of a World Bank report entitled International Debt Statistics (IDS) 2021 on October 12, 2020 which contains data and analysis of the position of sovereign debt in the world.

In one part of the report states the comparison of several small and middle income countries with the largest External Debt (ULN), including Indonesia.

On the other hand, the comparative report does not include developed countries but countries with small and middle income categories, so that Indonesia's position is included in the group of 10 countries with the largest external debt.

In addition, the structure of Indonesia's external debt remains dominated by long-term external debt, which has a share of 88.88 percent of total external debt.

In the comparative presentation, it can be seen that Indonesia's debt among other countries is considered large because Indonesia's economy is included in the G-20 group of countries in the 16th position.

According to the Ministry of Finance, with a large economy, government debt without SOEs and the private sector is still relatively low at 29.8 percent in December 2019.

The Ministry of Finance said that if you look at the list of 10 countries, Indonesia's position is far below other countries where most of the government debt is above 50 percent.

These countries are China 46.8 percent, Brazil 76.5 percent, India 68.3 percent, Russia 13.5 percent, Mexico 46 percent, Turkey 30.4 percent, Indonesia 29.8 percent, Argentina 86 percent, Africa South 56.7 percent, and Thailand 41.2 percent.

Referring to the joint publication of the Ministry of Finance and BI, namely the Indonesian Foreign Debt Statistics (SULNI), Indonesia's foreign debt consists of external government, state-owned and private external debt.

The position of central government external debt until December 2019 was US $ 199.88 billion or only 49 percent of Indonesia's total external debt. The Ministry of Finance explained that the World Bank IDS publication data was based on the SULNI data.

"The government has repeatedly explained that the data on external debt in the SULNI does not only consist of government external debt but includes data on the external debt of BI, BUMN, and the private sector," wrote the Ministry of Finance.

The Ministry of Finance ensures that it will continue to coordinate with Bank Indonesia to monitor the development of external debt and optimize its role in supporting development financing.

"Of course, by minimizing risks that can affect economic stability," wrote a press release from the Ministry of Finance.