RI to buy back treasury bonds

RI to buy back treasury bonds

JAKARTA: The Indonesian government will offer to buy back an undisclosed amount of Treasury bonds from lenders and investors today as it endeavors to save on interest costs.

The government is looking to repurchase bonds maturing between Jan. 1, 2006, and Dec. 31, 2010, the Ministry of Finance said in a faxed statement.

Indonesian is selling Treasury bonds and buying back older, higher-yielding debt, including that of local banks estimated to be about Rp 10 trillion (US$43.7 billion). The bonds were issued to banks after the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and 1998 to increase their capital. The government said on July 14 it may purchase around Rp 1 trillion of the securities.

The country's budget deficit may widen to Rp 35.2 trillion, or 1.3 percent of gross domestic product this year, from an initial forecast of Rp 20.3 trillion, or 0.8 percent of GDP, Finance Minister Jusuf Anwar said on July 18. -- Bloomberg