State-owned lender Indonesia Eximbank has disbursed Rp 103.38 trillion (US$7.22 billion) as of March, up by only 1.45 percent year on year (yoy) as the company continues to struggle to achieve higher growth, an official has said.
“In the early period of this year, financing was still insignificant as the market is still waiting for the election result,” Indonesia Eximbank corporate secretary Emalia Tisnamisastra said as quoted by kontan.co.id on Sunday.
“Companies and our customers are still in the wait-and-see stance and we hope to see a recovery in the second quarter.”
She added that global market conditions had discouraged bank customers from expanding their businesses because most were involved with commodities, the global prices of which significantly dropped last year, like crude palm oil (CPO).
“The exports [we have financed] rely on commodities that were affected by global prices. If the price trend declines and export demand also declines, we also suffer from the decline,” Emalia added.
She further revealed that foreign exchange financing had also declined this year as people preferred to use the rupiah. Therefore, Indonesia Eximbank has targeted a modest 2 percent growth in loan disbursement throughout 2019, a far cry from the 7.8 percent it achieved in 2018, she added
She explained that the lender would be focusing on financing sectors with high social functions and penetrating markets in non-traditional countries. (mai/bbn)
