DIGIVESTASI - Director General of Financial and Risk Management of the Ministry of Finance Suminto assessed that Indonesia's debt, which reached Rp 8,041 trillion as of November 2023, is still safe. Suminto told a press conference on the effectiveness and achievements of the 2023 State Budget in Jakarta, Tuesday (1/2), that the assessment of the effectiveness of government debt does not only refer to the nominal amount, but also needs to pay attention to many other indicators. . 

"But of course we don't just look at the nominal amount, if we look at different metrics across our debt portfolio, the actual performance of the debt includes the risks. Our debt is better than in previous years," he said. . 
Suminto said that Indonesia's debt is currently experiencing a significant improvement compared to the previous period. This is based on the debt to GDP ratio index, which currently stands at 38.11%. He explained, this had decreased compared to the position of 39.7% in December 2022 and the position of 40.7% in December 2021.

Then, when referring to the debt index based on exchange rate risk, the proportion of Indonesia's foreign currency debt is also declining. In November 2023, foreign currency government debt was recorded at 27.5%. He explained: "In November 2023, government debt in foreign currency only amounted to 27.5%. In this case, from the exchange rate risk point of view, it is also better." In addition, when viewed from the refinancing risk indicator, the average period of government debt (average time to maturity) is also considered quite long, which is around 8.1 years. 

"Likewise, on the other side of market risk, the interest rate risk of most government debts is around 82% and this is also a fixed interest rate so it is not too sensitive to interest rate developments in the market," he said.