In response to the increase in Bank Indonesia’s (BI) debt from US$24.67 billion to US$42.46 billion, or approximately 70 percent, during the first six months of 2026, economic expert Dipo Satria Ramli stated that the increase was a result of the central bank’s monetary operations.

“This is actually not government debt. It is Bank Indonesia’s debt. BI debt is usually issued through SRBI (Bank Indonesia Rupiah Securities). At the very least, this is not directly used to fund the state budget or other government spending,” Dipo said on Friday, October 9, 2026.

He explained that BI conducts monetary operations to intervene in the rupiah exchange rate.

“Bank Indonesia is essentially buying time, as the rupiah has been weakening. By issuing SRBI, BI is trying to prevent foreign funds from leaving the country. In other words, it is trying to strengthen the rupiah,” he explained.

Dipo also explained that SRBI differs from Government Securities (Surat Berharga Negara, or SBN) in terms of the issuer, purpose, maturity, retail investor access, and returns.

“SRBI does not affect the state budget or government debt. However, SRBI does affect interest rates. The higher the SRBI yields, the longer interest rates will remain high,” he said.

He stated that the impact of these interest rates is not immediately apparent in people’s daily lives. However, the correlation becomes evident when looking at financing rates and government bond yields.

“The BI Rate is currently at 5.75 percent. This means lending rates will also be above that level. Take Government Bonds (Surat Utang Negara, or SUN), for example. SUN yields still refer to the BI Rate. So, because SUN yields are high, the state budget has to pay higher interest costs. And because the BI Rate is high, bank lending rates are also expensive. This is where the impact on the public becomes visible,” Dipo concluded.