BI forex reserves fall slightly

JAKARTA (JP): Bank Indonesia's foreign exchange reserves in the fourth week of January 2001 dropped slightly to US$29.26 billion from $29.27 billion in the previous week, the central bank said in its latest report.

The central bank said in a statement that the base money was Rp 103.25 trillion, an increase of Rp 1.97 trillion from the level on Jan. 23, 2001.

Bank Indonesia said that the increase was particularly caused by an increase in the currency in circulation due to civil servant's salary payment.

Open-market operations during the fourth week of January had caused a decline in the money in circulation of Rp 4.63 trillion, the bank said.

Bank Indonesia Liquidity Credit affected contractions of Rp 444 billion resulted from the repayment of some credits channeled for horticulture, rice and secondary crops, it said.

The government's net account with Bank Indonesia declined by Rp 6.2 trillion to Rp 134.4 trillion due to the payment of civil servant's salary, payment of government bond coupons for bank recapitalization and offshore loans' payment.(tnt)