2018, Private Foreign Debt Surges Past Government Debt

Private foreign debt increased by 9.92% to US$189.35 billion (equivalent to Rp2,650.85 trillion at an exchange rate of Rp14,000 per US dollar) by November 2018, compared to the end of 2017. Meanwhile, government and central bank foreign debt grew by only 1.6% to US$183.52 billion (equivalent to Rp2,569.24 trillion). As a result, Indonesia's total foreign debt grew by 5.66% to US$372.86 billion (approximately Rp5,220.1 trillion) from its position at the end of 2017.

The faster growth of private foreign debt compared to government debt resulted in private foreign debt exceeding government foreign debt again since September 2018. For information, the largest portion of private foreign debt comes from domestic private entities, reaching 33.9%, followed by mixed private entities at 33.06%, SOEs (State-Owned Enterprises) at 22.04%, and foreign private entities at 10.53%.

The largest growth in private foreign debt was recorded by SOEs, which increased by 25.15% to US$42.48 billion compared to the end of 2017. This was followed by mixed private debt, which grew by 9.44% to US$62.6 billion, foreign private debt, which increased by 8.35% to US$19.94 billion, and domestic private debt, which increased by 2.12% to US$64.33 billion.

(Read Databoks: 3 Years of Jokowi-JK, Government Foreign Debt Increased by 35 Percent)