Jakarta (ANTARA) - Senior Deputy Governor of Bank Indonesia (BI) Destry Damayanti believes support from a solid financial sector, especially the banking sector, was deemed necessary for economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic.

"A strong and sustainable economic recovery certainly needs to be supported by a solid financial sector as well, specifically banks that have a fairly high resilience. This is reflected in the condition of a solid capital adequacy ratio (CAR) at 24.38 percent," Damayanti stated at a webinar in Jakarta, Wednesday.

In addition to CAR, the non-performing loan (NPL) ratio of net banking was also relatively well-maintained at 1.08 percent and gross NPL at 3.35 percent. Meanwhile, the liquidity ratio was also loose, with a ratio of 33.53 percent, and Third Party Funding (DPK) also continued to grow to 7.7 percent in September 2021.

In September, credit also grew by 2.21 percent and evenly as consumption loans increased by 2.95 percent, working capital loans by 28.5 percent, and investment loans by 0.37 percent.

"We estimate bank credit to continue to grow to 4-6 percent by the end of 2021," she remarked.

In the stock market, the Composite Stock Price Index (IHSG) continued to increase by 10.9 percent (year-to-date) to a level of 6,632 and the return on 10-year sovereign debt papers (SBN) also continued to decline and was at the level of 6.04 percent.

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The Financial Services Authority of Indonesia (OJK) has recorded corporate bonds valued at Rp65.2 trillion as of October 1. Hence, the appetite for banks or investors to start supporting the credit or financing sector is already apparent, she noted.

"Banks' loan appetite continues to improve, and it is reflected in the new loans disbursement in banks, which are currently more than loan repayments, as well as the lending requirement index that continues to decline and the credit ceiling that continues to grow every month," Damayanti pointed out.

She noted that the domestic economy had shown positive developments, albeit not as big as the previous quarter on account of the government's policy of tightening economic activity in July and August due to the increasing number of positive cases of COVID-19.

The deputy governor is optimistic of economic recovery being achieved because inflation was under control last October, recorded at 1.66 percent, in the midst of the ongoing economic recovery.

"In future, we see an improvement in Indonesia's economic conditions to be maintained. This is also seen from Indonesia's strong exports that reached US$13.2 billion and a net import portfolio of US$1.3 billion in the third quarter of 2021," she affirmed.

Based on the survey conducted by the central bank of the Economic Condition Index (IKE), the IKE increased from 59.4 in August to 91.8 in October 2021. Moreover, the Consumer Expectation Index also rose, from 95.3 in August to 134.9 in October 2021.
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Translator: Citro A, Azis Kurmala
Editor: Suharto
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