Indonesia's External Debt Reaches US$418 Billion in April 2021

Bank Indonesia (BI) reported that Indonesia's external debt (ULN) reached US$418 billion, or the equivalent of Rp6,041 trillion, in April 2021. This debt position grew by 4.8% from April 2020, which stood at US$398.9 billion or Rp5,764.9 trillion.

The growth in Indonesia's ULN was driven by increases in both government and private sector ULN. Specifically, government ULN reached US$206 billion in April 2021, a year-on-year growth of 8.6%. Meanwhile, private sector ULN was recorded at US$209 billion, up 1.2% year-on-year.

The increase in government ULN in April 2021 coincided with the net drawdown of foreign loans used to support the financing of several programs. Furthermore, sustained positive sentiment and confidence among global market players encouraged foreign investors to reinvest in domestic government securities (SBN).

Meanwhile, the increase in private sector ULN was driven by 4.3% year-on-year growth in ULN from non-financial corporations. However, the ULN of financial institutions still contracted by 8.8% year-on-year, a deeper contraction than the previous month's -6.6%.

The central bank assessed that Indonesia's ULN in April 2021 remained manageable. This is reflected in the ULN-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio, which stood at 37.9%. The healthy structure of Indonesia's ULN is also evident in the dominance of long-term ULN, which accounted for 89.2%.