Money Maker

Perum Peruri is branching into many new areas such as smart cards.

- Ulisari Eslita

Despite recent talk of a “cashless society” and rising e-com-merce, the reality remains that money for most Indonesians is old-fashioned paper notes and coins. That’s good news for the state-owned money printer Perum Peruri. In total, the number of banknotes in circulation at year-end 2017 was up 13% from the previous year, with Perum Peruri printing 11 billion banknotes and minting 2.3 billion coins last year. The strong growth was due, in part, because the government introduced a new design on its bills and coins in 2016.

“The steady performance last year was affected by the carry-over production of the new banknotes and coins in 2016, which was the busiest period Peruri ever had,” says Perum Peruri President Director Dwina Septiani Wijaya. While a private SOE, Perum Peruri releases its financial figures—last year, revenues rose 44% to Rp 3.48 trillion while profits jumped 162% to Rp 362.8 billion.