Jakarta (VNA) –  Indonesia’s external debt remained undercontrol at healthy levels, apparent from its about 37 percent externaldebt-to-Gross Domestic Product ratio at the end of February, relativelyunchanged from the earlier month and within the average of peer nations,according to a statement from the Bank Indonesia (BI).

Moreover, on the basis of originalmaturity, Indonesia's external debt structure at the end of the reporting periodcontinued to be dominated by long-term maturity debt, reaching 86.3 percent ofthe overall external debt, reported Antara news agency.

Therefore, despite external debt creepingupwards, the structure remained solid. The BI will ensure bolstering coordinationwith the government for monitoring external debt and optimising the role ofexternal debt in backing Indonesia’s development financing and looking at therisks that might impact macroeconomic stability.

At the end of February 2019, Indonesia’s externaldebt clocked in at 388.7 billion USD, comprising government and central bankdebt worth 193.8 billion USD and private including state-owned enterprises'debt reaching 194.9 billion USD.

Indonesia's external debt growth of 8.8percent year-on-year in February was chiefly due to an upturn in thegovernment's external debt.

The government’s external debt increased inFebruary 2019 for financing productive economic sectors, recording nearly 191billion USD, with growth increasing to 7.3 percent year-on-year, as compared toa rise of 3.9 percent in the January.

The rise was chiefly influenced by aninflux of foreign capital to the domestic markets in February, indicatingstrong investor confidence in Indonesia's economy.

The upsurge of government external debtopens wider opportunities for financing government spending and investment.Priority sectors financed through the government’s external debt wereproductive sectors for driving growth along with boosting public welfare, amongothers, human health and social work activities sector, construction sector,education sector, public administration and defence, compulsory social securitysector, and financial and insurance activities sector.

Private external debt as of February wasrecorded at 1.3 billion USD, a stable growth of 10.8 percent against theprevious month.

Private debt was largely held by thefinancial and insurance activities sector; manufacturing sector; electricity,gas, steam and air conditioning supply sector; and mining and drilling sector.The share of external debt in those four sectors to the total private externaldebt reached 74.2 percent. -VNA