Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – Bank Indonesia (BI) recorded Indonesia's foreign debt position at the end of April 2022 at 409.5 billion U.S. dollars, down from the position of external debt in the previous month of 412.1 billion dollars.

This development was mainly due to a decline in the position of external debt of the public sector (the government and the central bank/BI), Head of the BI Communications Department, Erwin Haryono, said in a statement on Wednesday.

On an annual basis, the position of foreign debt in April 2022 contracted 2.2 percent (year-on-year/yoy), deeper than the contraction in the previous month of 1.0 percent (yoy), Erwin explained.

The government's foreign debt position in April 2022 was recorded at 190.5 billion dollars, down from the previous month's foreign debt position of 196.2 billion dollars, he said.

On an annual basis, the government's foreign debt growth contracted by 7.3 percent (yoy), deeper than the contraction in the previous month which was recorded at 3.4 percent (yoy), he added.

According to Erwin, the decline in the government foreign debt occurred following several series of Government Securities (SBN) maturing in April 2022 and a shift in fund placements by non-resident investors in line with the high uncertainty in global financial markets.

The loan component also decreased on a net basis, as loan repayments were higher than loan withdrawals in support of financing priority programs and projects.

The withdrawal of external debt in April 2022 is still directed at financing the productive sector and efforts are made to continue to accelerate the acceleration of the National Economic Recovery program.

"Private foreign debt grew slightly compared to the previous month," Erwin said, adding that the position of private foreign debt in April 2022 was recorded at 210.2 billion dollars, a low growth of 0.03 percent (yoy), after experiencing a contraction of 1.6 percent (yoy) in the previous month.

This development was caused by the external debt of non-financial corporations which grew by 0.5 percent (yoy) compared to the previous month which recorded a contraction of 0.7 percent (yoy), mainly in line with the issuance of global corporate bonds in the mining and excavation sector.

In addition, the foreign debt of financial corporations contracted by 1.9 percent (yoy), lower than the contraction in the previous month of 5.0 percent (yoy).

By sector, the largest private foreign debt came from the financial services and insurance sectors; mining and quarrying sector; electricity, gas, steam/hot water, and cold air procurement sectors; and the manufacturing sector, with a share of 77.1 percent of total private external debt.

This foreign debt remains dominated by long-term external debt with a share of 75.7 percent of total private foreign debt.

Indonesia's foreign debt in April 2022 remained under control, as reflected in the ratio of Indonesia's foreign debt to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which was maintained at around 32.5 percent, down from the ratio in the previous month of 33.8 percent.

In addition, the structure of Indonesia's external debt remains healthy, as indicated by Indonesia's foreign debt which remains dominated by long-term external debt, with a share of 87.5 percent of total external debt.

Reporting by Indonesia Window