TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The government plans to obtain Rp359.3 trillion in debt in 2019, as stipulated in the advertorial document of the 2019 State Budget Draft. The draft was issued by Finance Ministry on Thursday, August 16.
The amount is down from 2018's debt financing outlook of Rp387.4 trillion. Nominally, in the past five years, the highest government debt withdrawn was in 2017 with a total of Rp429.1 trillion.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the government is trying to carry out a more careful debt financing strategy "and with a relatively small amount".
The debt financing strategy Sri referred to includes, among others, prioritizing debts in rupiah. Thus, the debt remains stable against exchange rate fluctuations. In addition, the government will optimize domestic investors' potential for market penetration as well as to control foreign ownership.
In addition, Sri Mulyani said the budget deficit would be covered using budget financing sources that refer to policies to control the debt-to-GDP ratio; keeping it within safe limits.
The minister added that today's state debt, with an outstanding Rp4,253.02 trillion, is still within a safe zone at 29.74 percent of the GDP.
