JAKARTA: Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa has addressed a number of investment firms in New York during his first work visit abroad since taking up the state treasury mantle in September last year.
Purbaya departed last Friday for a visit that will exceed a week, primarily to attend the 2026 Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group in Washington, scheduled for April 13 to 18.
Before heading to the US capital, Purbaya met and spoke about the Indonesian economy in New York with HSBC Global Asset Management, Lazard Asset Management, Blackrock, Lord Abbett and TD Asset Management.
“They intend to invest in Indonesia. So, we gave them some explanations to ensure that their doubts about Indonesia could be cleared,” Purbaya said on Tuesday.
He said the meeting contained elaboration of the government’s economic and fiscal strategies in a bid to reassure the investors that “our fiscal movement or strategy is in the right direction”.
Purbaya further claimed that the investors had no doubts about Indonesia’s fundamental macro policy, but they needed to ascertain the latest situation regarding ease of investment.
“They have no doubt, they just heard noises that our fiscal (standing) is in trouble, they want to make sure that that’s not right. Because they’re smart people, they can wholeheartedly accept that what we elaborated is in keeping with economic theories,” said the minister.
He added that the investors expressed concern about how international credit rating agencies had “hastily” changed Indonesia’s standing, particularly its outlook. Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Ratings downgraded Indonesia’s outlook from “stable” to “negative” last month.
Purbaya said the way to entice the investors to commit to Indonesia was by attaining the 5.4% gross domestic product growth target set in the state budget. — The Jakarta Post/ANN
