Who Owns Indonesia's Government Bonds? The Foreign Share Has Fallen, and It Matters for the Rupiah
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5 min read
In 2019, foreign investors held close to 40% of Indonesia's tradable rupiah government bonds. By mid-2026 the share was about 13%.
Did foreigners run away? Not quite. Their rupiah amount is near where it was. The pie just got much bigger, and local investors filled it.
This post looks at foreign ownership of Indonesia government bonds: who holds the rest, why the shift matters for the rupiah, and how to follow it yourself.
First, a few words. A government bond is a loan you give the state. The state pays you interest and returns your money later. In Indonesia these are called SBN (Surat Berharga Negara). Tradable SBN can be bought and sold on the market, so their price moves every day.
Here are the numbers we could find, with where each one comes from:
| Date | Foreign holdings | Share of SBN | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q4 2019 | Rp1,009.6 trillion peak (Aug 2019) | about 39% | IMF 2023 country report, as summarised in search results |
| End of April 2026 | Rp862.36 trillion | 12.75% | DJPPR data, via Kontan |
| Early June 2026 | Rp875.58 trillion | 12.66% | DJPPR data, via Kontan |
| 4 September 2026 | Rp917.71 trillion | share not stated | Kontan, highest in 12 months |
Look at the rupiah amounts. In August 2019 foreigners held about Rp1,010 trillion. In September 2026 they held about Rp918 trillion. That is a drop of roughly 9%.
The share fell from about 39% to about 13%. So most of the change did not come from foreigners selling. It came from the total pile of bonds growing fast, while local buyers took most of the new supply.
Here is a recent split. These figures are for early January 2026 and cover tradable SBN, as reported by Bisnis.com:
| Holder | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Banks | Rp1,397.68 trillion | 21.11% |
| Insurers and pension funds | Rp1,302.03 trillion | about 20% (our calculation) |
| Foreigners (non-residents) | Rp881.88 trillion | about 13% (our calculation) |
| Individuals | Rp536.94 trillion | about 8% (our calculation) |
| Mutual funds | Rp247.49 trillion | about 4% (our calculation) |
| Everything else, mostly Bank Indonesia | about Rp1,587 trillion | about 24% (our subtraction) |
Bisnis reported non-bank holders together at Rp3,636.53 trillion, or 54.92%. We worked out the total (about Rp6,620 trillion) from the bank figure and its 21.11% share. Then we calculated the other shares. The last row is what is left over. We assume it is mostly Bank Indonesia, but the report we saw did not give that number. Treat the whole table as approximate.
A June 2026 summary also quoted a different bank share. The two bank numbers did not match, so we only use the January one.
These are general habits, not rules. They explain why the mix matters.
When a foreign fund sells Indonesian bonds, it gets rupiah. To take the money home, it sells that rupiah and buys dollars. More rupiah for sale pushes the rupiah down.
When foreigners hold 39% of the market, those sales can be large. When they hold 13%, the same panic has less to push with. Local holders, who tend to be steadier, own most of the market.
That is the idea, and it matches how Indonesian market writers have described the post-2020 years: local investors stepped in when foreigners left. It is an argument, not a guarantee. A big enough global shock can still hit the rupiah, and BI had to spend effort to steady markets in those years.
There is a cost too. A market with fewer foreign buyers has fewer buyers overall. The state may need to pay higher yields to attract local money. We explain that link in how bond issuance affects yields (Indonesian).
For the wider picture of money moving in and out of Indonesia, see our post on portfolio investment versus FDI capital flows.
Slowly, perhaps. The Rp917.71 trillion figure for 4 September 2026 was the highest in 12 months, according to Kontan. One search summary also reported roughly US$9 billion of foreign inflows into rupiah government securities and BI's rupiah securities (SRBI) by June 2026. We did not verify that figure at its source.
A higher number does not change the picture yet. Foreigners still hold a bit more than one rupiah in eight.
You can see the effect on the NetWort macro page. Put the USD/IDR rate beside the Indonesia 10-year yield, and look at what happened to both the last time global markets got nervous. That is the foreign-ownership story in two lines.