Indonesia’s card payments market, which was affected by COVID-19 pandemic, is on the path of recovery supported by gradual rise in consumer spending. The card payments market is anticipated to grow by 10.7 percent and reach IDR619.5 trillion (US$ 44.2billion) in 2022, forecasts data and analytics company GlobalData.
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Like most countries globally, Indonesia was also adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. A large-scale lockdown and social distancing restrictions were imposed in the country, which resulted in the closure of businesses, and brought domestic and international travel to a halt, which in turn adversely affected card payments to decline by 22.4 percent in 2020.
With the gradual improvement in economic conditions and vaccination program gathering pace, card payment was estimated to grow by 8.4 percent in 2021 to reach IDR559.9 trillion (US$ 40 billion).
“Indonesia, which is primarily a cash driven economy, made progress in the adoption of card payments in the past few years supported by government initiatives, increasing banked population, rising consumer awareness of electronic payments, and increasing merchant acceptance,” said Ravi Sharma, Lead Banking & Payments Analyst at GlobalData.
The recovery in card payments is driven by debit cards, with their payments value expected to grow by 14.3 percent in 2022, supported by migration of cash transactions to debit cards.
Credit and charge cards payments, on the other hand, are expected to register 5.4 percent growth over the same period due to reduced consumer spending on airline tickets, hotels, restaurants, and transportation because of lockdown and travel restrictions.
The government, in collaboration with central bank, has been taking various initiatives to encourage payment card adoption and reduce dependence on cash. To offer secured payment experience and boost consumer confidence, all debit cards were migrated to the EMV standard before the central bank’s deadline of 31st December 2021.
In addition, to encourage credit card usage, monthly interest rate charged on credit cards was capped at 1.75 percent effective from 1st July 2021, reducing from the previous rate of 2 percent.
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“The Indonesian payments card market registered sustained growth in the last few years. Although, the COVID-19 crisis has hampered the growth trajectory, improving payments infrastructure and government initiatives will aid payment cards market growth over the next few years,” concluded Sharma.