Pak Jokowi, RI Is Not A IMF Patient But Accepts Rp90 Trillion In Delta Genting Time Yesterday

President Joko Widodo (Photo: Screenshot of Youtube News One)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) admits that he received a report from Washington DC, United States that a number of countries are hoping for a fresh injection of funds from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to address their domestic problems.

Unmitigated, the Head of State revealed that the number of countries reached tens. It is suspected that the report was received by the President from the Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani, who is currently known to be in the US for a meeting of the Special Event Toward G20 Summit.

"This morning I received information from a meeting in Washington DC, there were 28 countries that had lined up at IMF headquarters to become patients," the President said on Tuesday, October 11.

Although President Jokowi did not say for sure whether Indonesia was included in the country in question, it is unlikely that Indonesia would be on the list. The reason is, the state financial structure reflected in the state budget is quite strong.

This is based on fiscal performance which continues to show positive results. Citing data released by the Ministry of Finance, it is known that the 2022 State Budget still posted a surplus of Rp107.4 trillion as of last August.

This record extends the surplus record throughout the year which has not been broken since January 2022. In fact, the latest data is still greater than July which is called a surplus of IDR 106.1 trillion.

Although now far from the potential for dependence on the IMF, Indonesia had received a softloan offer offered by the international monetary institution last year.

According to VOI records, Bank Indonesia in early September 2021 had released information in the event of a surge in foreign exchange reserves to US$144.8 billion in August 2021 from the previous US$137.3 billion in July 2021.

It was revealed that the surge of US$7.5 billion in a month was mainly supported by IMF funds of US$6.31 billion or equivalent to Rp90.2 trillion through the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) scheme.

Head of the BI International Department, Doddy Zulverdi, said that this fund was not a debt but a financial facility aimed at countries that are members of the IMF.

"This is not a debt because there is no obligation to return it within a certain period of time," he said September 8, 2021.

Doddy revealed that the support was intended to provide a cushion for member countries to strengthen foreign exchange reserves in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Doddy also denied that the disbursement of funds received by Indonesia was an initiative from the government and the central bank. "The position of Indonesia's foreign exchange reserves is still in a safe condition and is in an increasing value trend this year," he said.

Just so you know, during that period Indonesia was under great pressure due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 delta variant which affected various aspects, both health, economy, and social.

Separately, Indonesian Center of Reform on Economics (CORE) Economic Observer Yusuf Rendy Manilet stated that the financial assistance received from the IMF through the SDR scheme this time was not a debt.

"Yes, I think if you talk about SDR and IMF, the Indonesian people, especially those who observed and felt the crisis from 1997-1998, they would immediately think about loans or debts given to Indonesia. However, I think the conditions this time are a bit different from at that time," he told VOI at the time.

According to Rendy, the Special Drawing Rights facility provided was not due to a request from the Indonesian government but purely an initiative from the IMF itself.

"Before the SDR is given, actually, if we look at the position of foreign exchange reserves in the country, it is still relatively sufficient, which is marked by the ability above international standards to reach at least 3 months of financing," said Rendy.

In a editorial search on the official website of Bank Indonesia, it was revealed that RI had an obligation to pay foreign debts to the IMF amounting to 8.47 billion US dollars as of July 2022.

This value decreased by about 103 million US dollars from the period June 2022 which amounted to 8.57 billion US dollars.

From the minutes, it was also revealed that the IMF is the third largest international organization to give debt to Indonesia. The top two places are occupied by Bank Internasional for Reconstruction and Development (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/IBRD) of 18.92 billion US dollars and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) of 10.37 billion US dollars as of July 2022.