Indonesia's Foreign Exchange Reserves Rose in March 2016
The central bank of Indonesia (Bank Indonesia) announced that the nation's foreign exchange reserves rose to a total of USD $107.5 billion at the end of March 2016, up USD $3 billion from Indonesia's forex assets one month earlier. Growing reserves came on the back of foreign exchange receipts, primarily through the the issuance of government global sukuk (Islamic bonds) and Bank Indonesia's US dollar-denominated bills. These forex receipts outweighed the government's foreign debt obligations.
Bank Indonesia stated in a press release that the nation's foreign exchange reserves at end-March 2016 can adequately cover eight months of imports or 7.8 months of imports and servicing of government foreign debt payments, well above the international standards of reserves adequacy at three months of imports.
The Indonesian rupiah has appreciated 4.4 percent against the US dollar so far this year. Based on the Bloomberg Dollar Index the rupiah stood at IDR 13,180 per US dollar at 08:20 am local Jakarta time on Friday (08/04).
Indonesia's Foreign Exchange Reserves 2008-2016:
| 2008 | 2009 |
2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016² | |
| Foreign Exchange Reserves¹ |
51.6 | 66.1 | 96.2 | 110.1 | 112.8 | 99.4 | 111.9 | 105.9 | 107.5 |
¹ in billion US dollar
² at end-March 2016
Source: Bank Indonesia