“What do these mean?” says Bachelor of Economics hopeful, Evian, 20, pointing to the words “volatile foods” and “Fed fund rate” when browsing through Bank Indonesia’s (BI) website.

Even when she understands some of the terms more widely used in her classes such as “capital adequacy ratio” and “non-performing loans”, she would still need the help of Google to make sure her understanding is right, which is discouraging for her when trying to comprehend these concepts more in-depth.

“If an economics student struggles to understand [these concepts], how can the broader public get it?” claims Evian, an accounting student at a private university in Jakarta, who raises an important issue that the central bank strives to address.

Man-on-the-street Bayu Supratminto, 41, who works as a chicken noodle vendor at a traditional market in West Jakarta, proves this.

“I’m confused about the words,” he responded, when analyzing a BI policy statement shown to him, also adding that it is news to him that inflation is part of the central bank’s duties.

BI, the nation’s main custodian of stabilizing the rupiah through price and exchange rate controls, is not oblivious to this communication failure. The central bank is trying to popularize its incomprehensible communiques and make them more amenable to the people they serve.

However, BI spokesman Tirta Segara said it was not an easy task as it was difficult trying to explain the central bank’s policies in simple Indonesian language.

“I’m still trying to translate them [BI’s statements] into casual language,” Tirta stated, admitting that monetary terms are difficult to comprehend, especially for those without an economics background. Internally, “we emphasize the need to use simple language when talking to the public.”

Ase one way to address the communication gap, BI is considering launching a mobile application that could deliver information about its monetary policies in effort to reach more youngsters, said Tirta, who once worked for the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

On social media, BI’s Twitter account @bank_indonesia is followed by 323,000 Twitter users. Another state institution Jakarta Metropolitan Police’s traffic management center’s account @TMCPoldaMetro has
5.82 million followers. The central bank’s latest video on YouTube about “why the rupiah weakens or strengthens” has been watched by 12,000 viewers.

Still, BI is also concerned that the use of more popular language could mistranslate their policies and make them not as precise as it wants them to be, especially for economists and the market.

Tirta said the central bank had no choice but to make several versions of its statements to cater to different target audiences.

It has for the past few years begun a habit of publishing colorful and pictorial infographics on its website and on newspapers so as to simplify various data and make them more understandable, such as for inflation, policy rates, loan-to-value (LTV) ratio policy, among others.

BI is not alone in facing these kinds of communication issues.

Bank of England (BOE) chief economist Andy Haldane recently admitted that the UK central bank’s way of communication was too complex and inaccessible to the average person on the street. The linguistic complexity of BOE speeches and publications even outstripped commercial banks’ annual reports, according to the central bank’s study.

“Plainly, there is further still for us all to go, myself very much included, in simplifying our communication to enable us to speak clearly to those we serve,” Haldane said as reported by Bloomberg.

Esther Samboh contributed to this story

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