Pawnshop loans drop drastically<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Monthly loans issued by the city's 23 state-run
\npawnshops dropped last month by 11.76 percent to Rp 30 billion
\n(US$3.16 million), the first such plunge in many years.<\/p>\n
City Pawnshop Office spokesman Soeparto told The Jakarta Post
\nthat the significant post-Idul Fitri holiday drop was amazing.<\/p>\n
\"Normally, we lend a great amount of money after the Idul
\nFitri holiday because there are crowds of people flocking
\npawnshops to ask for cash to start businesses or fund their daily
\nliving after they had spent most of their money during the
\nholiday,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The sluggish demand for pawnshop loans last month is being put
\ndown to many people no longer having belongings to mortgage as
\nsecurity for loans in the current economic turmoil.<\/p>\n
\"This weak condition could lasted the whole year,\" Soeparto
\npredicted.<\/p>\n
January's significant plunge was the first drop since the
\nrupiah began to collapse in July.<\/p>\n
\"In December, for instance, we distributed loans totaling
\naround Rp 34 billion,\" Soeparto said.<\/p>\n
He said many pawnshop clients did not dare borrow money from
\nbanks because many of the latter were also ailing on account of
\nthe uncertain fluctuation of the rupiah which has caused the
\ncurrent financial difficulties and prices of basic goods to soar.<\/p>\n
In addition to loan requests declining, pawnshops are also
\nfacing another problem: huge stocks of goods which have yet to be
\nclaimed back by their owners, Soeparto said.<\/p>\n
Among the granted items are 18 luxury cars, such as Mercedes
\nBenz, BMW and Nissan, he said.<\/p>\n
\"Like many of the other items, the cars are still in our East
\nJakarta office and are ready to be auctioned,\" he said, giving no
\nfurther explanation.<\/p>\n
The luxury cars belonged to people who desperate for cash, he
\nexplained.<\/p>\n
Soeparto also said that his office had at least 80.25
\nkilograms of gold and about Rp 3 billion in various currencies
\nwhich were all collected recently by the government in the
\nnationwide Love Rupiah campaign.<\/p>\n
He said his office kept the gold and the cash briefly before
\ntransferring it to Bank Indonesia, the central bank. (emf)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/pawnshop-loans-drop-drastically-1447893297",
"image": ""
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