Indonesia's Foreign Debt Growth Slows in January as Private Credit Demand Weakens

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia — Indonesia’s foreign debt experienced a slowdown in growth during January 2026. This was driven by a sharp decline in debt withdrawals from private companies that are not financial institutions, whilst government foreign debt continued to expand rapidly.

According to data from the Indonesian Foreign Debt Statistics (Sulni) recorded by Bank Indonesia (BI), Indonesia’s foreign debt position in January 2026 stood at US$434.7 billion, expanding 1.7% year-on-year, lower than the 1.8% growth recorded in December 2025 when the position was US$432.96 billion.

This development was influenced by a decline in the private foreign debt component, which fell to US$193.0 billion in January 2026 from US$194.0 billion in December 2025. In contrast, government foreign debt rose 5.6% year-on-year to US$216.3 billion, higher than the December 2025 position of US$214.26 billion.

“On an annual basis, private foreign debt contracted by 0.7% year-on-year in January 2026, a deeper contraction compared with the previous month’s 0.2% year-on-year decline,” according to BI data released on Monday (16 March 2026).

BI noted that the decline in private foreign debt was primarily caused by falling debt across several business sectors, including mining and quarrying, which fell from US$30.89 billion to US$30.67 billion; electricity supply, which decreased from US$38.40 billion to US$38.32 billion; and wholesale and retail trade, which fell from US$10.63 billion to US$10.17 billion.

The transport and warehouse sector also experienced a decline in foreign debt, falling from US$27.29 billion to US$26.88 billion. Information and communications dropped from US$6.11 billion to US$6.07 billion, and other services fell from US$5.85 billion to US$5.83 billion.

“Private foreign debt remained dominated by long-term debt, which accounted for 76.2% of total private foreign debt,” according to BI’s report.

Government foreign debt in January 2026, recorded at US$216.3 billion and growing 5.6% year-on-year, continued to dominate public sector debt, which totalled US$241.75 billion. The remainder came from central bank foreign debt of US$25.46 billion.

The increase in government foreign debt in January 2026 was driven by withdrawals of foreign loans to support government programmes and projects, as well as inflows of foreign capital into international government securities.

“This reflects the maintained confidence of investors in Indonesia’s economic prospects amid growing uncertainty in global financial markets,” BI stated in its report.