BI's gross foreign exchange reserves rise to US$21.5b
BI's gross foreign exchange reserves rise to US$21.5b
JAKARTA (JP): Bank Indonesia (BI), the central bank, announced on Friday that its gross foreign exchange reserves rose to US$21.5 billion in the week ending Oct. 7 from $20.5 billion the previous week.
The central bank said in its latest weekly report that the increase was due to the disbursement of the International Monetary Fund's fresh monthly loan of $936.7 million.
But its net international reserves (NIR) fell slightly to $13.94 billion as of Oct. 7 from $14.03 billion a week earlier, mainly due to servicing the interest of the government's foreign debt and selling dollars for rupiah to sterilize liquidity in the wake of greater government spending.
BI added, however, the Oct. 7 NIR level was still above the IMF's adjusted NIR target of $11.67 billion.
The central bank said that net domestic assets (NDA) which rose to minus Rp 67.93 trillion ($7.5 billion) during the week, were still below the IMF target of minus Rp 45.19 trillion.
The increase in the NDA level primarily resulted from an Rp 82 billion rise in Bank Indonesia's liquidity credit for food availability and farmers' credit and a Rp 7.22 trillion enlargement in BI's net claims on the government partly for servicing the interest of its foreign debts, the central bank explained.
BI also said that its net claim on the Indonesian Banks Restructuring Agency (IBRA) during the first week of October increased by Rp 436 billion to Rp 142 trillion from Rp 141.55 trillion a week earlier.
It added that primary money supply rose to Rp 71.5 trillion from Rp 70.2 trillion.
BI also announced on Saturday that the maximum interest rate guaranteed by the government for the period Oct. 12 to Oct. 18 was 64 percent for one-month deposits, down two percentage points from 66 percent per annum the previous week.
The maximum interest rates for six-month and 12-month rupiah time-deposits were unchanged at 50 percent and 48 percent respectively while the maximum interest rate for 24-month deposits was raised to 30 percent from 29 percent.
BI said the maximum interest rate for U.S. dollar deposits also stayed at 15 percent per annum for one-month, three-month, six-month and 12-month deposits, and was unchanged at 18 percent for the 24-month deposit.
The maximum interest rate for the rupiah interbank money market was set at 58 percent, and 14 percent for the dollar interbank money market. (gis)
Table A: Foreign reserves (in million dollars)
Sept. 23 Sept. 30 Oct.7
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Gross foreign assets 20,608.9 20,540.6 21,381.0
- Liquid reserves * - - -
- Other reserves ** - - -
Gross foreign liabilities 5,868.5 5,868.5 6,805.2
Net forward positions 0.0 0.0 0.0
Reserve against
foreign currency deposits 636.1 634.3 627.7
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Net international reserves 14,104.3 14,037.8 13,948.1
* Liquid gross foreign assets include gold, foreign securities, offshore deposits and special drawing rights.
** Other gross foreign assets include export drafts, deposits in the branches of domestic banks in offshore and deposits parked at foreign banks to guarantee letter of credits.
Table B: Monetary indicators (in billion rupiah)
Sept.23 Sept.30 Oct.5
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Reserve money 67,516 70,214 71,551
- Currency in circulation 48,437 49,728 49,897
- Deposits at central bank 18,501 19,790 21,031
Net international reserves
(Rupiah at constant rate) 141,043 140,378 139,481
(in million dollars) 14,104.3 14,037.8 13,948.1
Net domestic assets -73,240 -70,164 -67,930
- Net claims on government -40,085 -35,701 -28,485
- Net claims on IBRA 142,121 141,555 141,991
- Liquidity credits 17,244 17,680 17,762
(of which to Bulog) 7,558 7,589 7,583
- Open market operations -66,285 -67,370 -65,914
Source: Bank Indonesia