High Government Borrowing Leads to Increase in Indonesia’s Foreign Debt in January 2020

March 17, 2020 | Updated at March 17, 2020

Data issued by Bank Indonesia (BI) showed that the country’s foreign debt, including borrowings by the government and the private sector, increased 7.5% YoY to reach USD 410.8 billion in January 2020. BI noted that this was slower than the 7.7% YoY recorded in December 2019.

The government’s foreign debt, which consists of those raised by the central bank, BI, grew 9.5% YoY in January 2020 to USD 207.8 billion.

This increase in government foreign debt was driven by the issuance of USD 2 billion in dollar-denominated bonds, as well as EUR 1 billion (USD 1.1 billion) of debt papers that were issued in Europe in order to finance the budget deficit in 2020.