Revealed: Bank Indonesia's 'Sweet Elixir' to Spur Economic Growth

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Bank Indonesia is contributing to economic growth by encouraging banks to channel credit to the real sector and priority areas. Deputy Governor Destry Damayanti stated that BI has various pro-growth policies. These include providing incentives for banks willing to lend to priority sectors, such as reductions in the reserve requirement ratio (GWM). “We (BI) provide incentives of up to 5.5% of their GWM. So the GWM is actually 9%, but for banks that provide credit to priority sectors, they can get GWM relief of up to 5.5%,” Destry told CNBC Indonesia. Destry revealed that the injection of incentives has now reached Rp420 trillion as of June 2026. This means money that banks should have placed at BI in the form of GWM has been returned to the banks, amounting to Rp420 trillion. “The aim is to encourage banks to be willing to extend credit, to channel loans,” she said. BI is also providing incentives in the payment system through relief for MSMEs in the form of eliminated service fee discounts, known as the merchant discount rate (MDR). “In the payment system, we also provide relief for transactions under Rp500,000 for MSMEs. We give the merchants an MDR of 0%,” she stated. This also includes facilitating payment transactions through digitalisation and other means.