Indonesia's Foreign Exchange Reserves Fall to US$145.1 Billion in January 2024

Bank Indonesia (BI) reported that Indonesia's foreign exchange reserves at the end of January 2024 reached US$145.1 billion. This figure is lower than the position at the end of December 2023, which was US$146.4 billion.

"The decrease in foreign exchange reserves was influenced, among other things, by the maturity of government foreign debt payments," said Erwin Haryono, Assistant Governor of BI's Communication Department, in a press release on Wednesday (February 7, 2024).

Erwin stated that the foreign exchange reserves were equivalent to 6.6 months of import financing or 6.4 months of import and government foreign debt payments. He said that this level of foreign exchange reserves is above the international adequacy standard of around three months of imports.

He continued, stating that Bank Indonesia assesses that these foreign exchange reserves are capable of supporting the resilience of the external sector and maintaining macroeconomic and financial system stability.

Looking ahead, according to Erwin, Bank Indonesia views foreign exchange reserves as remaining adequate, supported by maintained economic stability and prospects. He said this is in line with the synergistic policy mix response implemented by the central bank and the government in maintaining macroeconomic and financial system stability to support sustainable economic growth.

Over the past four years, Indonesia's foreign exchange reserves have shown a fluctuating trend. This is illustrated in the chart above.

It is recorded that the highest Indonesian foreign exchange reserves since the beginning of 2020 were in September 2021 at US$146.9 billion, while the lowest were in March 2020 at US$121 billion.