The Indonesian central bank (BI) has recorded the five largest creditors for Indonesian private foreign debt in the past 10 years, namely Singapore, the United States, China, Hong Kong, and Japan. Overall, as of November 2023, private foreign debt decreased by 2.3 percent compared to the same period in 2022 (year-on-year/yoy) to US$196.2 billion.
The five largest creditor countries contributed US$135.52 billion or 69.07 percent of the total private foreign debt. The private sector that actively reduced its foreign debt, includes financial institutions and non-financial corporations, which contracted by 6.1 percent (yoy) and 2.5 percent (yoy), respectively.
Based on economic sectors, the sectors with the highest private foreign debt are manufacturing industries and financial and insurance services. Then the electricity, gas, steam/hot water, and cold air supply sector, as well as mining and quarrying, accounted for 78.6 percent of the total. The manufacturing sector has the highest private foreign debt, reaching US$45.14 billion, while the financial and insurance services sector ranked second at US$38.7 billion.
BI has also recorded Indonesia’s private foreign debt position to China at US$19.52 billion as of November 2023, or an increase by nearly three folds in the last 10 years.
Bright Institute Economist, Awalil Rizky, noted that Indonesia’s private foreign debt to China has increased 2.8 times during Joko Widodo’s presidency from 2014 to November 2023.
“[There are] two countries whose lending has increased significantly during the Jokowi era. China increased by 2.8 times, from US$6.88 billion [in 2014] to US$19.52 billion,” Awalil posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday, January 29, 2024. This means Indonesia’s private debt to China increased by US$12.62 billion during Jokowi’s two terms of presidency.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s lending also increased by 2.6 times from US$6.68 billion to US$17.17 billion during the same period. Indonesia’s private debt to Hong Kong increased by at least US$10.49 billion since 2014. Although recording the fastest growth, Indonesia’s private foreign debt mainly comes from Singapore, reaching US$55.43 billion as of November 2023.
