Stabilise Bond Market, Purbaya to Utilise Cash and SAL Instead of Bond Stabilisation Fund

Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa has ultimately chosen to utilise government cash and the Budget Surplus Balance (SAL) to stabilise the bond market, rather than activating the bond stabilisation fund. He explained that the bond stabilisation fund, or BSF, is designed as a buffer during crises, whereas Indonesia is not currently in an economic crisis. “We might not activate the bond stabilisation fund yet, but we will stabilise bond prices first. It’s different; the bond stabilisation fund is for crises, then we call on everything. This isn’t a crisis,” Purbaya stated during a media briefing at the Ministry of Finance in Jakarta on Monday, 11 May 2026. To stabilise bond prices, Purbaya will optimise all available instruments, including cash management and SAL. He assesses that these two instruments are sufficient to control the prices of government securities (SBN). Accordingly, he has no plans to involve other institutions or entities such as PT Sarana Multi Infrastruktur (Persero) (SMI) or the Indonesia Investment Authority (INA) at this time. “We just manage the cash to make bonds more stable. What we use can be SAL or our cash. So, my treasury unit will be more active; it will be like a treasury in the private sector,” he said. Previously, Purbaya had revealed plans to activate the bond stabilisation fund on Wednesday, 6 May 2025. That step was intended to keep the debt securities market stable and not easily swayed by foreign investors, as well as to prevent volatility in the domestic financial market and help maintain the rupiah’s exchange rate stability. He noted that the pressure on the bond market in recent months was triggered by outflows of foreign capital from the domestic debt securities market, which drove a rapid rise in yields. In that context, Purbaya initially prepared the BSF to stabilise the bond or debt market by buying back (buyback) SBN in the secondary market that were sold by investors. That strategy was implemented to keep SBN yields stable, so that foreign investors holding debt securities would not suffer capital losses.