The central bank holds its benchmark interest rate at 3.5% for seven months.

Bank Indonesia's Board of Governors (RDG) decided to maintain the benchmark interest rate (BI 7-Day Reverse Repo Rate/BI7DRR) at 3.5% in August 2021. This marks the seventh consecutive month that the BI7DRR has remained at 3.5%, since February 2021.

Furthermore, BI maintained the deposit facility interest rate at 2.75% and the lending facility interest rate at 4.25%.

This decision was made to maintain the stability of the rupiah exchange rate and the financial system. This is in line with the forecast of low inflation and efforts to support economic growth.

The inflation rate remained low at 0.08% month-on-month (mom). However, this is higher than the previous month, which recorded a deflation of 0.16% (mom).

Economic growth in various countries also shows improvement, although overshadowed by the increase in cases of the Delta variant of the Covid-19 virus. This can be seen from the realization of economic growth in the second quarter of 2021 in several countries, such as the United States, Europe, and China.

The performance of various economic indicators, such as the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) manufacturing, consumer confidence, and retail sales in these countries remains strong. Based on this, world economic growth is estimated to reach 5.8% in 2021.

The same is happening in Indonesia. The Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) recorded that Indonesia's economic growth reached 7.07% in the second quarter of 2021 year-on-year (yoy).

However, the implementation of Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) should be watched out for as it could lower economic growth again. Nevertheless, the central bank expects Indonesia's economic recovery to continue.