Clinton and IMF dispatch top officials to RI<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (Agencies): The Clinton administration and the
\nInternational Monetary Fund, responding to a worsening economic
\ncrisis in Indonesia, dispatched top officials to Jakarta to
\ndiscuss salvaging a faltering bailout effort.<\/p>\n
President Clinton called Indonesian President Soeharto on
\nThursday night from Air Force One to discuss the economic
\nsituation after the Indonesian currency plunged to a record low
\nearlier in the day.<\/p>\n
During the 20-minute call, Clinton made it \"quite clear that
\nthe IMF program needs to be followed,\" said a senior
\nadministration official, speaking to reporters on the condition
\nof anonymity.<\/p>\n
The White House said Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence
\nSummers, the administration's point man on the Asian currency
\ncrisis, and a team of State Department and National Security
\nCouncil officials would leave within the next few days for
\nIndonesia and other countries in Asia.<\/p>\n
White House spokesman Barry Toiv told reporters traveling with
\nClinton that the president had spoken to Singapore Prime Minister
\nwhile on a fund-raising trip to New York and then with Suharto
\nbefore departing for Texas.<\/p>\n
\"The president felt it was important that these sentiments
\nexpressed in the statement be expressed publicly at this time,\"
\nToiv said.<\/p>\n
Earlier Thursday, the IMF announced that its managing
\ndirector, Michel Camdessus, and Deputy Director Stanley Fischer
\nwere also being sent to Indonesia for emergency consultation.<\/p>\n
The IMF said Fischer would head directly for Indonesia while
\nCamdessus was expected to travel first to South Korea for a
\nmeeting Sunday in Seoul with President-elect Kim Dae-Jung and
\nother officials.<\/p>\n
South Korea, Indonesia and Thailand all received IMF rescue
\npackage last year.<\/p>\n
The statements from the administration and the IMF Thursday
\nheld out a promise that a speed-up in Indonesia's US$ 40 billion
\nprogram might follow if Soeharto's government pledges to follow
\nthe IMF austerity program.<\/p>\n
The plunge of the Indonesian currency this week was triggered
\nby release of a proposed government budget that financial markets
\nviewed as falling short of the commitments Indonesia made to the
\nIMF.<\/p>\n
The IMF said in a statement that its officials would negotiate
\nwith the Indonesians \"an acceleration of much-needed reforms
\nalready agreed upon under the IMF-supported\" rescue program.<\/p>\n
\"We'd like to accelerate the program and strengthen it because
\na lot of people believe the Indonesian government wasn't really
\ncommitted to the program,\" Fischer told CNN television, referring
\nto the reforms underpinning the bailout.<\/p>\n
He made clear IMF funding would stop if this did not take
\nplace. \"The program cannot go ahead if the Indonesian government
\nisn't supporting the measures that it said it would do,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's economy is \"more worrisome\" than South Korea's,
\nFischer said.<\/p>\n
\"Today it is more worrisome than South Korea which has
\nstabilized in the last few days, but they are both big problems
\nand they both bear constant watching,\" Fischer said in the
\ninterview on CNN.<\/p>\n
Indonesia has already received $3 billion of the IMF's $10
\nbillion portion of the bailout and a further $3 billion will be
\navailable after March 15, provided the country sticks to the
\nreform program.<\/p>\n
A record fall in Indonesia's currency Thursday sent stock
\nmarkets across the region plunging sharply as investors
\nliquidated portfolios. The rupiah plunged 26 percent and stocks
\non the Jakarta market dropped an average 12 percent Thursday -
\nboth one-day worsts.<\/p>\n
The IMF said its management \"believes that the recent
\ndepreciation of the rupiah represents a significant overreaction
\nby the market.\"<\/p>\n
Depression -- Page 10<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/clinton-and-imf-dispatch-top-officials-to-ri-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }