"The ratio suggests that the amount of government and private foreign debts is still safe," the head of Bank Indonesia`s public relations bureau, Difi A Johansyah said here on Thursday.
Debt service ratio is the ratio of debt service payments (principal + interest) to export earnings. A country`s international finances are healthier when this ratio is low. The ratio is between 0 and 20 percent for most countries.
Difi said Indonesia`s debt service ratio in the second quarter of 2011 was higher than that of the first quarter which reached 18 percent. But it was lower than those of the end of 2009 which reached 23.2 percent and the end of 2010 which reached 22.2 percent.
The ratio would be getting lower if the country`s exports continued to increase and the amount of government and private foreign debts continued to fall, he said.
In the balance of payment until the first quarter of 2011, Indonesia`s exports reached a total value of US$51.46 billion, causing a surplus in the balance of payment to increase to US$11.9 billion from US$7.7 billion in the previous quarter.
Indonesia`s foreign debts until the first quarter of 2011 totaled US$214.5 billion, a 10 percent increase compared to the end of 2010.
The amount consisted of government debts totaling US$128.6 billion and private debts totaling US$85.9 billion.
The government debts increased compared to the end of December 2010 when the figure was US$118.6 billion, while the private debts as per December 2010 reached US$83.8 billion.
As per April 2011, the private debts consisted of US$72.5 billion incurred by non-bank institutes and US$13.4 billion by banks
(Uu.S012/HAJM/A014)
Editor: Ruslan Burhani
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
