To curb inflation, Bank Indonesia (BI) has been raising its benchmark interest rate, the 7-Days Reverse Repo Rate (BI7DRR), since August 2022. Consequently, deposit interest rates have also increased.
Previously, 12-month deposit interest rates at commercial banks had been declining since mid-2019 until the middle of this year. Then, starting in August 2022, the trend of deposit interest rates rose again, driven by the central bank's interest rate hikes.
At the end of Q3 2022, the 12-month deposit interest rate at commercial banks reached 3.52%, a 25 basis points (bps) increase compared to the end of Q2.
BI also continued to raise its benchmark interest rate, reaching 5.25% in November 2022. However, the central bank has not yet released data on deposit interest rate developments for November 2022.
Generally, BI projects that the increase in banking interest rates remains limited due to still-ample liquidity conditions.
"The 1-month deposit interest rate in October 2022 rose to 3.40% from 2.89% in July 2022, while the October 2022 credit interest rate increased marginally to 9.09% from 8.94% in July 2022," BI stated in a press release last week (November 17, 2022).
"The limited increase in interest rates is in line with still-loose liquidity, which prolongs the lag effect of policy interest rate transmission on funding and credit interest rates," it continued.
BI also projects that the inflation rate will remain high until the end of this year, thus opening up the possibility of further interest rate hikes.
"The November 2022 consensus forecast shows expectations of inflation at the end of 2022 remaining high, at 5.9% (yoy), although lower than the previous month's 6.7% (yoy). With these developments, Bank Indonesia will strengthen its monetary policy response to lower inflation expectations, which are currently still high," said BI.