May 22, 2026 | 05:30 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Perry Warjiyo has requested commercial banks to hold credit interest rates steady despite a 50-basis-point increase in the benchmark BI-Rate. During its May Board of Governors Meeting, BI decided to raise the benchmark interest rate to 5.25 percent from the previous 4.75 percent.Perry emphasized that the efficiency of the banking sector must be improved to ensure that credit expansion continues to grow. "Therefore, we ask banks to improve their efficiency so that they don't raise loan interest rates," he said during a virtual press conference on Wednesday, May 20, 2026.In April 2026, bank credit expanded by 9.98 percent year-on-year, up from the 9.49 percent recorded in March 2026. Meanwhile, bank loan interest rates in April 2026 stood at 8.73 percent, while the one-month deposit interest rate hovered at 4.16 percent.Perry noted that BI has implemented a series of policies to guarantee liquidity across both money and banking markets. One of the measures taken is the purchase of government securities (SBN) in the secondary market. As of May 19, 2026, BI had bought SBN worth Rp140.57 trillion, which includes Rp73.28 trillion acquired through secondary market operations.The BI Governor stressed that the central bank remains firmly committed to driving economic growth, even though its current monetary policy leans more toward maintaining stability. "With the various policies we have implemented, we believe the rupiah will remain stable and tend to strengthen," Perry said.In addition, Perry is confident that the central bank's policy mix can successfully keep inflation within the target range of 1.5 percent to 3.5 percent, maintain economic growth between 4.9 percent and 5.7 percent, and drive credit growth within the 8 to 12 percent bracket.Read: Indonesia's Current Account Deficit Hits Deepest Level Since 2019Click here to get the latest news updates from Tempo on Google News
