Jakarta. Indonesia is banking on the recent Rp 200 trillion or $12 billion injection in commercial banks to create jobs and boost exports, as the banks’ top executives face pressure to disburse the loan as soon as possible. 

In his first week in the cabinet, Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa shifted the unspent government funds previously reserved in the central bank to state-run lenders, including BNI and Mandiri. The senior economist is hoping to jump-start lending with the multi-billion-dollar “deposit on call” instrument.

All state-owned enterprises are now under the sovereign fund Danantara’s command. Danantara’s boss Rosan Roeslani recently commented on the cash injection, saying that the money should specifically go into providing productive loans.

“The money [that enters the bank] should be used for new productive loans, which meet two criteria. It [the loan] has to be export-oriented, and can spur many jobs,” Rosan told reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday evening. 

The official statistics agency BPS revealed that Indonesia’s exports reached $160.16 billion between January and July 2025, up 8.03 percent year-on-year. Job creation has become a major obstacle that the populous Indonesia must get rid of if it wants to grow its economy. Career fairs often see long queues of applicants, but the unemployment rate stood at 4.76 percent as of February, BPS reported.

Purbaya recently admitted that he had not given any guidance to the banks’ top brass on how they should deploy all the funds. He’d rather tell these executives to put their thinking caps on. 

“They are actually smart, but just lazy, and they would place the money [or invest] in a safe place, without doing anything. They already gain a good enough spread with high returns. So, perhaps, they would go and play golf for the weekend,” Purbaya said.

The three main state-owned banks BNI, BRI, and Mandiri have received around Rp 55 trillion, over a quarter of the total cash injection. BSI -- the Islamic bank that was the result of the merger between the three banks’ sharia units -- got Rp 10 trillion, the smallest portion due to its banking size. Last but not least is the state mortgage bank BTN with the remaining Rp 25 trillion.

Indonesia's bank credit issuance grew at a slower pace of 7.03 percent year-on-year (yoy) in July 2025. This marked a decline from the 7.77 percent yoy growth recorded the previous month.

BNI’s corporate secretary Okki Rushartomo said that the bank planned on disbursing the funds to productive sectors in line with the government's priorities.

“We welcome any government policy aimed at boosting national economic growth. Placing the funds in banks will expand the liquidity room and provide a positive stimulus to support financing in the real economy,” Okki said.

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