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Foreign debt stabilizes at $415 billion in Q2 after years of rising
The country’s indebtedness abroad remains “manageable” according to Bank Indonesia as most of the debt comes with long maturity and the debt-to-GDP ratio has come down to 37.5 percent.
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An employee monitors the movement of government debt papers (SUN) at Bank Rakyat Indonesia's (BRI) office in Jakarta in this file photo. A slight increase in government debt, outweighed by falling private-sector debt, led the country to book an overall 0.1 percent qtq dip in external debt in the second quarter of 2021. (JP/File)
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ndonesia’s external debt barely changed in the second quarter of the year as a slight increase in government debt was outweighed by falling private-sector debt.
At an equivalent of US$415.1 billion, the total indebtedness at the end of June was down a slight 0.1 percent from the previous quarter and 0.3 percent lower than at the end of last year, according to data published by Bank Indonesia (BI) on Monday.
The drop comes after a decade of consecutive annual increases as external debt rose from $202.4 billion at the end of 2010 to $416.4 billion at the end of 2020.
“Indonesia’s external debt structure remains healthy, as indicated by the dominance of long-term external debt with a share of 88.4 percent of total external debt,” wrote the central bank in a statement on Monday.
Read also: BPK raises concern about govt's ability to service debt
On an annual basis, external debt in the second quarter was 1.9 percent higher than a year earlier, but that signifies a significant deceleration from 7.2 percent annual growth recorded in the first quarter. The slowdown in growth was attributable to slower growth of external government debt and a reduction in private sector external debt.
The government’s external debt in the second quarter, while up 4.3 percent year on year (yoy) at $205 billion, increased at a much slower rate than the 12.6 percent yoy rise logged in the first quarter, thanks to a decline in foreign debt.
