Indonesia’s export value managed to record a surplus for 32 consecutive months. The export figure submitted by Bank Indonesia (BI) touched US$ 632.9 billion. However, the large export value did not “flood” the country’s foreign exchange. Why this can happen?
The large value of Indonesia’s exports in fact does not make the country’s foreign exchange big either. This also took Bank Indonesia by surprise.
The reason for this is that entrepreneurs do not park their export earnings in the form of dollars in Indonesia.
Even though it was a crucial period for the central bank in maintaining the stability of the rupiah exchange rate. Because at that time, the United States (US) dollar was experiencing a very strong strengthening.
All countries need dollars, so there is interest rate competition between countries, not only between banks but also between countries.
Meanwhile, one of the conditions for maintaining the stability of the rupiah exchange rate is having an adequate supply of dollars.
Regarding this matter, BI Senior Deputy Governor Destry Damayanti explained, since December 2022, his party has continued to coordinate with the government.
Therefore, in order to strengthen monetary operations, the central bank decided to issue a new instrument called the DHE foreign exchange term deposit with competitive yields.
The foreign currency deposit term is specifically aimed at attracting exporters to park their DHE longer into the Indonesian financial system.
BI saw and identified around 200 companies that were considered to have potential results from the export of natural resources (SDA) which were quite large and were estimated to need a place for their DHE placement.
Furthermore, BI Governor Perry Warjiyo explained, on December 20, his party had issued a Bank Indonesia Regulation concerning the latest foreign currency monetary operations instruments.
The regulation in question is Bank Indonesia Regulation Number 24/18/PBI/2022 concerning the Second Amendment to Bank Indonesia Regulation Number 21/14/PBI/2019 concerning Export Proceeds and Import Payments.
The instrument for operating foreign currency monetary is in the form of a foreign exchange term deposit DHE referring to market mechanisms, along with providing incentives to banks with the obligation to provide competitive interest rates for exporter customers.
Perry claims that this policy has been agreed upon by banks and is considered attractive by banks. So that they will compete to invite exporters to park their DHE domestically.