Based on data published by Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs of Republic of Indonesia, there were 64 194 057 SMEs in 2018, which made up 99.99% of the total business population and employed more than 116 million people. In this report, SMEs consist of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.
Outstanding loans to all businesses stood at IDR 5 931.61 trillion in 2018, with 19.68% of that amount (IDR 1 167.45 trillion) allocated to SMEs. Outstanding loans continued to grow in double digits in the past eight years (2011-18), with an average yearly growth rate of 16.42%. Outstanding loans to SMEs also rose by 14.82% in this period.
Despite total outstanding loans increasing significantly, non-performing loans (NPLs) remained under 5%. In fact, in the last three years (2016-18), NPLs have been declining both for SMEs (from 4.05% to 3.35%) and for total business (from 2.96% to 2.40%).
The share of short-term loans fell by 16.29% in the 2011-18 period, from IDR 120.80 trillion in 2011 to IDR 101.11 trillion in 2018. Meanwhile long-term loans in the same period grew by 192.49% from IDR 235.9 trillion in 2011 to IDR 1 038.05 trillion in 2018, with a yearly average of around 17.58%. The increasing trend in long-term loans illustrates lenders’ higher trust in Indonesian SMEs.
In the period of 2011-2018, interest rates on loans declined for all business, from 14.53% to 12.69% for SMEs and 1.27 percentage points for large company from 12.28% to 11.01%. Interest rates are declining in Indonesia but are still very high compared to the average in other countries.
Financing distributed by the Venture Capital Company shows a significant increase, reaching out IDR 8.46 trillion in 2018, a 94.59% increase compared to 2012. Every year in the 2012-2018 period, the amount of financing grew constantly, with an average growth rate of 13.02%.
Other non-bank finance indicators also gained momentum. Leasing and hire purchases increased by 7.01% in 2018. This indicator shows around 207.54% growth in total during the 2007-2018 periods. Factoring activities exhibit similar trends. During 2007-2018, factoring experienced strong growth (603.80%). Factoring increased by around 16.28% in 2018.
Most SMEs in Indonesia are experiencing problems in accessing financing. Based on this observation, Indonesian Government launched a financing scheme called People Business Credit Programme or Kredit Usaha Rakyat (KUR) in 2007. KUR’s objective is to increase SMEs access to finance and works as a bridge for SMEs to obtain a financing scheme from a financial institution. A total of IDR 499.32 trillion have been allocated as part of this programme during 2007-18 and distributed to all provinces in Indonesia. KUR has managed to maintain high-quality credit, with a very low NPL rate. In 2018, the NPL rate for KUR stood at just 0.24%.