JAKARTA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Bank Indonesia on Tuesday announced that Indonesia's foreign debt stood at 413.6 billion U.S. dollars in January, contracting 1.7 percent year-on-year and less than the 415.3 billion U.S. dollars recorded in the previous month.
"The decline occurred in both the public sector and the private sector," Erwin Haryono, head of the communications department at the Indonesian central bank, said.
In the public sector, the central bank said the foreign debt in January totaled about 9 billion U.S. dollars, while the government's external debt decreased by 5.4 percent year on year to 199.3 billion U.S. dollars as loans were repaid.
In the private sector, repayment of loans due in January led its external debt to contract 1.0 percent to 205.3 billion U.S. dollars.
Bank Indonesia said that the Southeast Asian country's external debt structure remains under control, with a ratio of 34.1 percent of the gross domestic product and 88.2 percent of the long-term debt. ■