RI's reserves at $16.6b

RI's reserves at $16.6b

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's foreign exchange reserves stood at
US$16.599 billion as of March 13, 1998, or equivalent to four
months of non-oil and gas imports, Bank Indonesia said yesterday.

Bank Indonesia director for monetary and economic statistics
and research, Miranda S. Gultom, announced yesterday that March
13's reserves were 1.6 percent higher than the amount recorded at
the end of February but 2.8 percent lower than that on Feb. 16.

"The rise of foreign exchange reserves, compared to the amount
at the end of February, is, among others, due to the withdrawal
of standby loans amounting to $444 million during this period,"
Miranda said.

She added that as of March 13, Bank Indonesia still maintained
additional standby loans of $1.43 billion at various
international commercial banks.

In January, Bank Indonesia for the first time decided to
include all foreign exchange assets available to the central
bank, including foreign exchange deposits by commercial banks and
export drafts, in official foreign exchange reserves.

Miranda said most of Indonesia's gross foreign assets were
liquid assets. (rid)