Jakarta (ANTARA) – The Indonesian government has issued sharia sovereign bonds (SBSN) to the tune of Rp1,810.02 trillion (US$124.49 billion) between 2008 and June, 2021, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has said.
“From year to year, sharia sovereign bonds have continued to develop and play an increasingly important role in financing the state budget,” she noted at the International Conference of the National Committee for Sharia Economy and Finance (KNEKS), held virtually from Jakarta on Thursday.
The contribution of sharia sovereign bonds to the financing of the state budget swelled to Rp360 trillion in 2020 from Rp4.7 trillion in the early days of their issuance in 2008, the minister disclosed.
Sharia sovereign bonds contribute 20-30 percent to the issuance of government debt securities (SBN) every year, Indrawati said.
As of July 1, 2021, the total outstanding sharia sovereign bonds have reached Rp1,075.83 trillion (US$73.99 billion), or 19 percent of the total outstanding government debt securities, she added.
She said individual investors’ ownership of sharia sovereign bonds grew to Rp46.48 trillion in June, 2021 compared to Rp22.7 trillion in 2008.
Sharia sovereign bonds have also served as a very stable instrument trusted by both domestic and foreign investors, she noted. Sharia sovereign bonds have also played a role in deepening the financial market, expanding the investor base, and setting an example of safe investment instruments, the minister noted.
To that end, Indrawati said she is committed to continuously developing the market for sharia sovereign bonds, including developing products to meet different needs of investors.
The products include retail sharia bonds, sharia savings, sharia global bonds, project financing-linked sharia bonds, Cash Waqf Linked Sukuk (CWLS), and asset underlying sharia bonds, she informed.
“The various efforts will hopefully offer alternative instruments to domestic investors and deepen the financial market, particularly the sharia sovereign bond market,” she remarked.
Source: Antara News