Government Debt Has Increased To IDR 7,754 Trillion, Ministry Of Finance: Care For

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu) reported that the amount of government debt at the end of January 2023 was IDR 7,754.9 trillion.

This amount is equivalent to 38.56 percent of gross domestic product or GDP.

The amount of government debt last month was recorded to be greater than the end of December 2022 which was stated at IDR 7,733.9 trillion or 39.57 percent of GDP.

"(The amount of debt) is still far below the limit of the law of 60 percent of GDP," said the Ministry of Finance in its minutes, Monday, February 27.

The mistake explained that during the period December 2022 to January 2023, the strengthening (appreciation) of the value of the rupiah against various foreign currencies (USD, EUR, JPY) contributed to reducing the position of government debt in foreign currencies.

"The government always carefully manages debt with controlled risks through optimal composition, both related to currency, interest rates, and due," said the Ministry of Finance report.

Based on currency, government debt denominated by rupiah dominates with a proportion of 71.45 percent.

This is in line with the general policy of debt financing, namely optimizing domestic financing sources and utilizing foreign debt as a complement.

"This policy is carried out in coordination and close cooperation with Bank Indonesia in order to deal with the volatility of the rupiah exchange rate against foreign currencies and its impact on paying foreign debt obligations, so that the risk of exchange rates is more maintained," he stressed.

Meanwhile, the composition of government debt is mostly in the form of State Securities (SBN) instruments which reach 88.90 percent.

In detail, the domestic SBN distributed by the government reached Rp5,519.2 trillion. Meanwhile, SBN in foreign currency (foreign currency) amounted to Rp1,375 trillion.

Meanwhile, debt in the form of domestic loans was IDR 21.6 trillion and foreign loans IDR 838.9 trillion.

The deep, active, liquid SBN market will support increased debt management efficiency in the long term. SBN has a strategic function for the financial system, especially because of its safe (risk-free) nature, "said the Ministry of Finance.