BI clarifies report on bad loan increase

BI clarifies report on bad loan increase

JAKARTA (JP) Bank Indonesia (BI) denied yesterday that bad
loans, up from 3.53 percent of outstanding credit as of March to
3.88 percent as of September, were all at state banks.

"The bad loans reported by Bank Indonesia Governor J.
Soedradjad Djiwandono in a hearing with the House of
Representatives on Wednesday were recoded at all commercial banks
in the country, including state-owned, private domestic, joint
venture and foreign banks," the official said, referring to this
newspaper's report quoting Soedradjad yesterday.

The official refused to disclose the percentages of the bad
loans at state-owned, private domestic, joint venture and foreign
banks.

He said the absolute amounts of the bad loans suffered by the
country's commercial banks could not be based on the outstanding
credit figures stated in Bank Indonesia's weekly report because
the governor's report was based on monthly reports which are not
published for the public. (hen)