Moreover, on the basis of original maturity, Indonesia's external debt structure at the end of the reporting period continued to be dominated by long-term maturity debt, reaching 86.3 percent of the overall external debt, noted a statement from Bank Indonesia (BI) on Monday.
Hence, despite external debt creeping upwards, the structure remained solid. BI will ensure bolstering coordination with the government for monitoring external debt and optimizing the role of external debt in backing Indonesia’s development financing sans the risks that might impact macroeconomic stability.
In the meantime, Indonesia’s external debt in February 2019 remains under control, with a healthy structure.
At the end of February 2019, Indonesia’s external debt clocked in at US$388.7 billion, comprising government and central bank debt worth $193.8 billion and private including state-owned enterprises' debt reaching $194.9 billion.
Indonesia's external debt grew by $4.8 billion than the previous period following net withdrawals of external debt. Yearly, Indonesia's external debt growth of 8.8 percent (yoy) in February 2019 after registering 7.2 percent yoy in the previous month was chiefly due to an upturn in the government's external debt.
The government’s external debt increased in February 2019 for financing productive economic sectors, recording $190.8 billion, with growth increasing to 7.3 percent yoy, as compared to 3.9 percent yoy in the previous month.
The rise was chiefly influenced by an influx of foreign capital inflows to the SBN domestic markets in February 2019, indicating strong investor confidence in Indonesia's economy.
Furthermore, the Indonesian government's initiative to issue Global Sukuk aimed to back fiscal funding based on the Green Bond and Green Sukuk Framework.
The upsurge of government external debt opens wider opportunities for financing government spending and investment. Priority sectors financed through the government’s external debt were productive sectors for driving growth along with boosting public welfare, among others, human health and social work activities sector, construction sector, education sector, public administration and defense, compulsory social security sector, and financial and insurance activities sector.
Private external debt as of February 2019 was recorded at $1.3 billion, a stable growth of 10.8 percent yoy than that of last month.
Private debt was largely held by the financial & insurance activities sector; manufacturing sector; electricity, gas, steam & air conditioning supply sector; and mining & drilling sector. The share of external debt in those four sectors to the total private external debt reached 74.2 percent.
EDITED BY INE
Translator: Azis Kurmala
Editor: Eliswan Azly
Copyright © ANTARA 2019
