Faulty conversion

As a regular reader of The Jakarta Post, I feel I must point out this time one of the Post's regular mistakes: the conversion of monetary values from rupiah to U.S. dollar.

In page 12 (Business and Investment) of Jan. 4 issue there is a report IBRA to sell Bank Niaga, BCA in June: Edwin, the author quoted: the sale of two banks would contribute about Rp 6 trillion (US$6.38 billion).

I was overjoyed when reacting first to the U.S. dollar figure. $6.38 billion accounts for an enormous percentage of the total sale of assets of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA)! But I soon realized it to be impossible, and my suspicion was confirmed when I referred back to the rupiah figure.

Was this an April fool's day hoax? Then I recall the Post similar mistake months ago in a report on a newly started bank lending to local small exporters. I became suspicious just by making a rough estimation. I wonder why such obvious mistakes could occur repeatedly and how large a negative impact it could cast on the Post.

Hope the mistake was the last to appear in the Post.

LI YING

Jakarta

Note: Thank you for your correction. The sentence should be: the sale of two banks would contribute about Rp 6 trillion (US$638 million). We apologize for the error.

-- Editor