Jakarta. Bank Indonesia announced on Tuesday the country's foreign exchange reserves stood at $139.4 billion in January, an increase of $2.2 billion when compared to December 2022.

"The increase in the foreign exchange reserves in January 2023 was propelled by government's global bond issuance and tax and services revenues," central bank spokesman Erwin Haryono said in a statement.

Erwin said the reserves were adequate to meet foreign exchange needs for six months of import and the government's external obligations.  

"Bank of Indonesia considers that the foreign exchange reserves are strong enough to provide resilience against external factors and maintain the macroeconomics and monetary system stability," Erwin said.

Chief Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto said last month the government considers holding foreign exchange revenues from export activities in Indonesia's financial system for a certain period to strengthen the reserves.

The government is drafting a regulation to determine "how much, from what sector, and for how long" foreign exchange revenues can be kept in the country, Airlangga said.