Bank Indonesia, the central bank of Indonesia, announced on Friday (10/02) that Indonesia's balance of payments surplus reached USD $4.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2016 as the capital and financial accounts' surplus managed to (more than) compensate for the USD $1.8 billion current account deficit (or 0.8 percent of the country's gross domestic product/GDP) in the same quarter. Regarding full-year 2016, Indonesia posted a USD $12.1 billion surplus in its balance of payments, while its current account deficit was equivalent to 1.8 percent of GDP.

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Moody's Investors Service, one of the globe's three big credit rating agencies, affirmed Indonesia's Baa3 issuer rating, Baa3 senior unsecured bond ratings, and (P)Baa3 senior unsecured medium term note program rating. However, it also upgraded its credit outlook on Indonesia from "stable" to "positive", implying that Indonesia comes a bit closer to a rating upgrade. Such upgrade would trigger capital inflows (on the back of stronger investor confidence), while the cost of funds would become cheaper for the government when issuing government bonds.

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The government of Indonesia plans to sell another series of sharia-compliant government retail bonds (in Indonesian: Sukuk Negara Ritel, abbreviated Sukri). The offering period is planned for 4 February - 2 March 2017. However, Suminto, Islamic Financing Director at the Budget Financing and Risk Management Office within Indonesia's Finance Ministry, did not inform about the indicative target for this issuance. He only informed local media that the target of the bond issuance will be in line with the government's financing needs and existing market conditions.

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The central bank of Indonesia (Bank Indonesia) decided to leave its interest rate environment unchanged at the January 2017 policy meeting on Thursday (19/01). The benchmark seven-day reverse repurchase rate (BI 7-day RR Rate) was kept at 4.75 percent, while the Deposit Facility and Lending Facility rates were maintained at 4.00 percent and 5.50 percent, respectively. The decisions of Bank Indonesia are in line with analysts' forecasts. Due to risks of capital outflows Indonesia's central bank had few room to ease monetary policy.

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