The Finance Ministry managed to book the figure as individual investors flocked to safe-haven assets amid a volatile financial market due to uncertainties triggered by the COVID-19 outbreak. This is the third year for the government to issue retail bonds online.

“The proceeds will be used to fund the budget deficit, particularly for mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the Finance Ministry’s director for sovereign debt papers, Deni Ridwan, told a discussion on Monday. “With high appetite from retail investors, we can be more independent in financing the state budget needs.”

Bonds in the ORI-017 series carry a fixed coupon rate of 6.4 percent and have a tenure of three years to mature on July 15, 2023. The debt papers were offered online to Indonesian individuals, who could invest between Rp 1 million and Rp 3 billion each. The bond will be tradable between domestic investors after a two-month holding period.

The Finance Ministry noted that 42,733 investors bought the debt papers offered from June 15 to July 9. They are dominated by millennials, or people between 20 and 40 years of age, followed by the age group of 41 to 55 years and investors aged 54 to 74 years old.

The number of investors who bought ORI-017 worth Rp 1 million jumped by 123 percent compared to the previous series to 2,002 people.

“Aside of being a source of state budget financing, the ORI-017 issuance as part of the government retail bond series is also an effort to nurture an investment culture [among Indonesians] and to create independence in state financing,” the ministry said in a statement on Monday.

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