RI govt to issue Rp2.7t in bonds

RI govt to issue Rp2.7t in bonds

JAKARTA: The Indonesian government plans to issue Rp 2.7 trillion (US$303 million) in bonds in the first week of April, an official at the Surabaya Stock Exchange said late Monday.

"The bonds will be listed on the Surabaya Stock Exchange in the first week of April and the auction of the bonds will begin in the second week of April led by the central bank," the exchange's president director Hindarmojo Hinuri told Dow Jones.

He said the bonds will likely have a maturity of eight to 10 years and will carry a coupon of 100 basis points above the weighted average rate on Sertifikat Bank Indonesia notes, or SBI. But he didn't specify whether the bonds will be priced based on the one or three-month notes.

The one-month SBI rate is currently 11.36 percent and the three month is 11.97 percent.

Indonesia plans to issue Rp 7.7 trillion in new bonds this year to help refinance its maturing debt. That is just a small fraction of the Rp 40 trillion of bonds coming due this year and the even greater amount maturing in 2004. -- Dow Jones

;Agencies; ANPAf..r.. Moneymatter-WTO-farm-talks WTO farm talks kick off JP/16/money

WTO farm talks kick off

GENEVA : Members of the World Trade Organization began key talks here on Tuesday on global agricultural reform amid wide differences between countries.

The meeting is scheduled to run until next Monday, when the 145-member WTO is supposed to have set the guidelines and targets for the farming negotiations.

Heading into the talks, one diplomat from a developing country commented there had been little progress.

"I don't see any convergence of opinion," the diplomat said.

The big farming exporters of the 18-strong Cairns Group led by Australia, and the United States, accuse the European Union of spending billions of dollars on protecting their farmers.

But the EU, along with Switzerland and Japan, say their so- called non-trade concerns such as the role played by farming on environmental protection are not sufficiently being taken into consideration. --AFP