Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesias foreign debt fell by 0.3 percent to US$303.2 billion in August 2015 from US$303.9 billion a month earlier, according to Bank Indonesia (BI).

"The decline was caused by a drop in the amount of foreign debts incurred by the public and private sectors," Executive Director of BI Communication Department, Tirta Segara, said here on Monday.

The public sectors foreign debts decreased by US$0.5 billion, particularly due to a decline in the amount of foreign debts incurred by the government, he said.

The private sectors foreign debts fell by 0.1 percent as the amount of foreign debts incurred by the banks dropped, he said.

He said the private sectors foreign debts reached US$169.3 billion, accounting for 55.8 percent of the overall foreign debts. Meanwhile, the public sectors foreign debts amounted to US$134 billion or 44.2 percent of the total.

Nearly 85.2 percent of the overall foreign debts in the year that ended in August 2015, were long term debts. The long-term debts comprised 50.7 percent of those incurred by the public sector, while 93.7 percent of the short term debts were incurred by the private sector.

"The long-term foreign debts grew (5.3 percent year-on-year) in August 2015, lower than the figure for July 2015 ( 5.5 percent year-on-year). Meanwhile, the short-term foreign debts contracted (by -3.1 percent year-on-year)," he added.

The foreign debts incurred by the private sector mostly went to the financial sector, manufacturing industry, mining industry, and electricity, gas and drinking water sectors," he said.

By the end of August 2015, the foreign debts in the four sectors represented 76.2 percent of the overall foreign debts incurred by the private sector.

"Bank Indonesia has noticed that the developments in the matter of foreign debts in August 2015 were fairly sound. However, it needs to stay alert to the risks these could pose to the economy," he said.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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