BI: Foreign Debts Still Healthy

Jakarta (Antara) - Bank Indonesia (BI) said Indonesia's foreign debts until June 2014 was still in a safe level although the country needs to observe greater prudence. The country's foreign debts rose 3.1 percent or US$8.6 billion to US$284.9 billion by June 2014 from US$276.3 billion three months earlier. BI executive director of communications Tirta Segara attributed the increase to growing non-residents' ownership of bonds issued by both the private sector (US$4.2 billion) and the public sector (US$1.2 billion). In addition a decline of US$800 million in public loans is not enough to offset an increase of US$1.6 billion in foreign loans by the private sector, Tirta said. "Bank Indonesia will continue to monitor and strengthen its policy in foreign debt management especially private debts that foreign debt will be effective in boosting development without causing risk to macro economic stability," he said here on Wednesday. The ratio of the foreign debts to country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), therefore, rose to 33.86 percent by June from 32.33 percent by the end of the first quarter of this year. The debt service ratio (DSR), which is the ratio of total debt and interest to current account revenue rose to 48.28 percent in June from 46.42 percent three months earlier. The country's foreign debts by the end of June 2014 included government debts making up US$131.7 billion (46.2 percent of the total foreign debts) and debts of foreign sector making up US$153.2 billion or 53.8 percent of the total debt. (*)