Indonesia has no governmental debt to pay to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), stated Vice President of Indonesia Jusuf Kalla.
“We have no more governmental debt,” Kalla remarked after attending the ASEAN Summit in Langkawi, Malaysia, Tuesday night, ANTARA News reported.
He noted that the payment to the IMF is not the governments obligation but Bank of Indonesia, as a member of the IMF, which should pay its dues.
“That is not a debt, it is dues that should be paid by Bank of Indonesia to the IMF,” Kalla emphasized.
The vice president has concluded his visit to Malaysia by participating in the retreat and the closing ceremony of the 26th ASEAN Summit in Langkawi Island, Malaysia, on April 27-28, 2015.
During his visit to Langkawi, Kalla also participated in the head of states/ governments meeting of Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, and Philippine, apart from attending the East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) and Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) meeting.
Kallas statement bears resemblance to the 6th Indonesian former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyonos tweet through his personal twitter account that Indonesia has settled its debt to the IMF in 2006.
Yudhoyono stated that Indonesia’s debt to the IMF, amounting to $9.1 billion, has been paid off in 2006 or four years earlier than schedule.
He added that the IMF even came to Indonesia in 2012 to appeal to the government to allocate funds to help countries in need.
Economic Growth
Indonesia’s central bank is forecasting the economy to grow as much as 6 percent in 2016, and expects a moderate pick up over the next four years - well below President Joko Widodo’s growth target which analysts see as overly optimistic.
Bank Indonesia’s (BI) latest economic report, which was embargoed for release on Wednesday, also predicted growth at 6.5 percent in 2019, a fair distance from Joko’s ambitious 7.7-8.3 percent goal.
“The government assumes growth at 7 percent with all government projects working 100 percent.
At Bank Indonesia, we take a different approach at seeing whether or not projects can be realized,” said Solihin Juhro, BI’s director for monetary policy at the launch of the economic report on Tuesday.
Joko, who took office in October last year, pledged to boost gross domestic product (GDP) growth to 7 percent on average during his term which ends in 2019.
