Dollar briefly hits Rp16,910 per US$, Is Indonesia's government debt safe?
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - The volatility in the rupiah’s exchange rate against the US dollar today will not cause the government’s foreign-currency debt in the APBN to swell significantly, according to Deputy Finance Minister Juda Agung, speaking at the Indonesia Economic Forum 2026 in Jakarta earlier this week. “So I can say that indeed our APBN is flexible enough to respond to and mitigate pressures arising from global factors,” he said on Wednesday, 4 March 2026.
Juda Agung explained that despite the rupiah facing volatility against the US dollar, government debt can remain safe because denominational diversification is being vigorously pursued. “If in the past financing came largely from the global market and predominantly from US dollars—almost 80-100% in US dollars—we are now diversifying the market,” he said.
The government, he added, is now issuing more foreign-currency debt in Chinese renminbi and the European euro. Last week, global bonds issued in those two currencies were equivalent to US$4.5 billion in total—i.e., the same value in US dollars but issued in euro and renminbi—with prices still very attractive. “The yields are still very good. For renminbi, around 2-3%; for euro, around 4-5%. This scale remains very favourable for our global markets,” he said.
As information, the latest nominal central-government debt totals Rp 9,637.9 trillion as of 31 December 2025, or about 40.46% of GDP. However, the breakdown of real proportions is hard to determine, as the government no longer regularly publishes debt data in the APBN performance and facts book, which used to be issued monthly. The most recent easily accessible data is as of the end of Q2 2025, i.e., June 2025. At that time, of the nominal debt Rp 9,138.05 trillion, Rp 6,554.95 trillion was in rupiah, US dollars were equivalent to Rp 1,755.30 trillion, yen Rp 283.19 trillion, euro Rp 519.49 trillion, and other currencies Rp 25.11 trillion.
“So if we have a lot of debt in foreign currencies, we will of course be exposed to movements in exchange rates,” said Suminto, Director General of Financing and Risk Management (DJPPR) at the Ministry of Finance, during a media briefing in Bogor, West Java, quoted on Monday 13 October 2025.
Overall, foreign-currency-denominated debt is actually just 28.3% of total, down from 28.7% in 2024. By comparison with 2020, the share of foreign-currency debt was still considerably higher at 33.5%. As of June 2025, rupiah-denominated debt dominated at 71.73%, up from 71.39% in 2024. The debt sourced from US dollars accounted for 19.21%, down from 20.45% in 2024. The yen accounted for 3.10% (slightly up from 3.05% in 2024), euro for 5.68% (up from 4.81%), and other currencies for 0.27% (down from 0.30%).
Because of this, the government regards the current debt composition as increasingly stable in the face of exchange-rate volatility. The June 2025 debt data also shows a lower total level than May 2025’s Rp 9,177.48 trillion.
“Therefore, if there is currency movement and the rupiah depreciates, our obligations in US dollars on aggregate will be managed well, because our exposure to foreign-exchange movements is only about 28%,” Suminto said.
The rupiah traded under pressure today, Wednesday 4 March 2026, slipping to around Rp16,910 per US, down0.36 on Tuesday 3 March 2026.