Government to start selling bonds to BI under private placement next week

The government will begin selling sovereign debt papers (SBNs) to Bank Indonesia (BI) under private placement next week as part of the “burden-sharing” scheme to fund the country’s coronavirus response and reduce the government’s debt burden.

The Finance Ministry’s financing and risk management director general, Luky Alfirman, said on Friday the government would conduct the private placement gradually based on the government’s budget needs.

“We are currently setting up a special account at the central bank and hopefully next week we may start the implementation,” Luky told reporters in a press briefing. The government bonds bought by the central bank will have five to eight years’ maturity, he added.

The government and BI agreed on Monday to a burden-sharing scheme worth Rp 574.59 trillion (US$39.4 billion) to finance the nation’s COVID-19 response and bolster economic recovery efforts.

The scheme will see BI buying Rp 397.5 trillion in government bonds at a maximum coupon rate to correspond with BI’s benchmark interest rate of 4.25 percent to fund health care and the social safety net. The central bank will then return the yield to the government in full on the same day it is paid.

BI, together with the government, will also bear the debt costs of the government's stimulus package for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and large businesses, which is estimated to generate Rp 177 trillion in debt.

Several economists have raised concerns that the debt monetization will result in higher inflation caused by a rising money supply and may weaken the rupiah exchange rate, while some economists have raised concerns over rising sovereign risk perception in the long run.

The government and the central bank pledged to monitor its impact on inflation, Luky went on to say, expecting inflation to remain at a safe level this year.

Meanwhile, BI senior deputy governor Destry Damayanti said recently the central bank had a “strategy in place” to respond to the risks posed by debt monetization in the long run, adding that BI was currently focusing on bolstering economic growth.

Indonesia’s economy may shrink 0.4 percent at worst or may grow by 1 percent this year depending on the severity of the coronavirus crisis. The government has allocated a Rp 695.2 trillion stimulus program to speed up economic recovery and prevent the country’s economy falling into recession this year.