English
Indonesia sees 3.8% foreign debt growth in Q3
JAKARTA: Foreign debt has risen in the third quarter of the year, due to the government’s samurai bond issuances and borrowed funds from multilateral organisations to finance coronavirus relief packages and economic stimulus toward recovery, according to Bank Indonesia (BI) data.
Indonesia’s external debt, which includes government and private-sector borrowings, reached US$408.5bil by the end of the third quarter, up 3.8% year-on-year (y-o-y) but down from US$413.4bil in August, as the private sector paid their debts.
The government’s foreign debt increased 1.6% y-o-y to US$197.4bil in September, according to the central bank. Meanwhile, overall public debt amounted to US$200.2bil, including the central bank’s debts.
“The growth in foreign debt slowed, as foreign investors adjusted their portfolios in Indonesia’s debt market because of high uncertainty in global financial markets, ” BI said in a statement. “However, the government’s samurai bond issuance in the Japanese financial market and borrowings from multilateral organisations in the third quarter moderated the slowing trend.”
Indonesia raised 100 billion yen (US$957mil) from the issuance of five-tranche samurai bonds in early July to help the government plug the fiscal deficit and fund its Covid-19 response.
The government has earmarked 695.2 trillion rupiah (US$49.3bil) to finance its coronavirus response and economic stimulus package, which is expected to widen the budget deficit to 6.34% of gross domestic product (GDP). Several multilateral organisations, such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, have committed to providing billions of dollars in loans to the country. — The Jakarta Post/ ANN