Foreign Investors Flock to Indonesia's Government Bonds, Purbaya: The Rupiah Should Strengthen!
Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa revealed that foreign capital inflows into Indonesia are increasingly robust. According to him, this situation should signal a strengthening of the rupiah exchange rate against the US dollar.
Data from Purbaya indicates that, up to the end of April 2026, the cumulative net foreign capital inflow into Indonesia has reached Rp10.4 trillion. This was particularly driven by an inflow of Rp38.5 trillion in April 2026 alone.
He stated that the total inflow in April 2026 was supported by investor funds flowing into State Securities (SBN) amounting to Rp13.4 trillion, although year-to-date it remains an outflow of Rp11.7 trillion. Bank Indonesia bonds (SRBI) saw an inflow of Rp42.2 trillion, with a year-to-date inflow of Rp72 trillion, while stocks recorded an outflow of Rp17 trillion in April 2026, with a total outflow since January 2026 of Rp49.9 trillion.
“Especially in SBN and SRBI, there is still a slight outflow in stocks,” said Purbaya at his office in Jakarta on Tuesday (5/5/2026).
Purbaya explained that the realisation of rapid economic growth in the first quarter of 2026 at 5.61% should serve as a positive sentiment, further boosting investor confidence to hold portfolio investment assets in Indonesia.
He is confident that with this inflow condition, the rupiah exchange rate will strengthen in the future. Although currently, pressure on the rupiah continues with depreciation reaching levels above Rp17,400/US$.
“Moreover, now they see that our economic fundamentals are good, after previously there was much noise that we were bad, ruined, going to this and that, with this, there should be more inflows and the rupiah should strengthen according to its fundamental conditions,” explained Purbaya.
As is known, the rupiah exchange rate was observed to weaken against the US dollar following the release of Indonesia’s first-quarter 2026 economic growth data this afternoon, Tuesday (5/5/2026).
Citing Refinitiv data, at 11:15 WIB, the rupiah was at Rp17,425/US$, or depreciated by 0.35%.
This weakening continued the pressure seen since the morning trading opening, when the rupiah opened 0.09% weaker at Rp17,380/US$.
Pressure on the rupiah occurred alongside the announcement by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reporting Indonesia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in the first quarter of 2026 at 5.61% year-on-year (yoy), higher than market expectations. On a quarterly basis, the Indonesian economy contracted by 0.77% (quarter-to-quarter/qoq).
For note, the market consensus compiled by CNBC Indonesia from 12 institutions/agencies previously projected first-quarter 2026 economic growth at 5.40% yoy. Meanwhile, on a quarterly basis, the economy was estimated to contract by 1.0% qoq. Although the economic growth data was better than expectations, the rupiah has still not been able to escape the pressure.