Indonesia’s Foreign Exchange Reserves Reached US$141.4 Billion in February, a Slight Increase from January

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Indonesia’s foreign exchange reserves experienced a slight increase last February compared to January. Bank Indonesia (BI) reported that the position of foreign exchange reserves at the end of February 2022 reached US$141.4 billion.

The foreign exchange reserve position increased slightly compared to the position at the end of January 2022 of US$141.3 billion.

The increase in foreign exchange was influenced by several things. Head of the BI Communications Department Erwin Haryono explained that the increase in the position of foreign exchange reserves in February 2022 was influenced by the withdrawal of government foreign loans as well as tax and service receipts.

“The position of foreign exchange reserves is equivalent to financing 7.5 months of imports or 7.3 months of imports and servicing the government’s foreign debt,” he said in a press release, Tuesday (8/3/2022).

Erwin said the foreign exchange reserves were also above the international adequacy standard of around 3 months of imports.

“Going forward, BI views that foreign exchange reserves will remain adequate, supported by stability and maintained economic prospects, along with various policy responses to encourage economic recovery,” Erwin said.

Citing the February 2022 edition of the APBN Kita report, the government has withdrawn foreign loans in the first month of this year amounting to Rp. 17.26 trillion. On the other hand, the government also paid the foreign loan installments of Rp 4.45 trillion. Thus, on a net basis, the government drew foreign loans of Rp 12.8 trillion in the first month of this year.

With these developments, Indonesia’s foreign loans in January 2022 increased compared to the previous month to Rp 823.99 trillion. The increase in foreign loans mainly came from multilateral loans and commercial bank loans, while bilateral loans declined.

Furthermore, BI assesses that the foreign exchange reserves can support external sector resilience and maintain macroeconomic and financial system stability.