Indonesia is in the research phase. Bank Indonesia published a CBDC white paper (referred to as Project Garuda) in November 2022 at the Bank Indonesia Annual Meeting. Bank Indonesia governor Perry Warjiyo noted that the paper was published with the permission of the president. Warjiyo also said that the goal is to start with a wholesale CBDC and then work towards issuing a retail CBDC for the broader public. Bank Indonesia has outlined the transition plan here.

Later in 2022, it was reported that legislative changes were underway to make a future CBDC (referred to as the digital rupiah) legal tender in Indonesia. Warjiyo was quoted saying, “The features found in paper money are also available in digital rupiah. The difference is, in digital rupiah everything is encrypted... The coding is encrypted, only [Bank Indonesia] knows.”

Bank Indonesia later published another paper that summarizes the public comments received between January 31, 2023 and July 15, 2023 that were responding to the white paper. In late 2023, Bank Indonesia announced that it would soon enter the following stages: experimentation, prototyping, piloting, and policy reviews. However, at this time, it does not appear that Bank Indonesia has moved beyond these research and consultation efforts.

Indonesia has made improvements over the years, but it still only earned a 58 out of 100 in Freedom House’s 2023 Freedom in the World report. The country faces many problems. However, regarding the issuance and use of a CBDC, corruption and pressure on dissenting voices are the most relevant concerns.

“Corruption remains endemic in the national and local legislatures, civil service, judiciary, and police,” according to Freedom House. The U.S. Department of State likewise reported that “NGOs claimed that endemic corruption was one cause of human rights abuses, with economically powerful interests using corrupt government officials to harass and intimidate activists and groups that impeded their businesses.” The existence of pervasive corruption is a major concern with CBDCs because it calls into question any promises that might be made by the government to limit surveillance, control, or other risks of CBDCs. Furthermore, the existence of corruption calls into question whether CBDC policies might be designed to exert political favoritism through subsidies, price controls, or other targeted restrictions.

Reports continue to indicate that “government officials used direct pressure on internet service providers to degrade perceived opponents’ online communications,” and that “slowdowns may have been designed to disrupt reporting on government human rights abuses.” In fact, the Jakarta State Administrative Court ruled that “the government may block internet access during periods of social unrest.” Unfortunately, a CBDC could be used as another tool in this effort. Across the world, governments have often turned to freezing and seizing the money of activists, political rivals, and protestors to undermine the opposition. A CBDC would make such initiatives easier by allowing governments to take direct control of each citizen’s finances.

For additional information on concerns regarding violations of human rights and civil liberties, see the following reports by Amnesty International, Financial Tyranny Index, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, Privacy International, and the U.S. Department of State. For additional information on concerns regarding the risks of CBDCs, see the following webpage and report by the Cato Institute: The Risks of CBDCs and Central Bank Digital Currency: Assessing the Risks and Dispelling the Myths.

For additional information regarding metrics, the methodology page explains each of the data points and provides their respective sources.