SBI rate falls slightly to 15.14%

SBI rate falls slightly to 15.14%

JAKARTA: The weighted average interest rate on one-month SBI
promissory notes fell slightly, the central bank said Wednesday.

The one-month SBI notes fell to 15.14 percent at the weekly
auction Wednesday from 15.16 percent at last week's auction, Bank
Indonesia said.

Bank Indonesia also said it accepted Rp 21.38 trillion (US$2.4
billion) in bids at the auction, or 96.84 percent of total bids.

The central bank has been guiding rates lower slowly amid
decreasing inflation pressure and the rupiah's sharp appreciation
against the dollar.

Guiding rates lower will help reduce the costs shouldered by
the government to bail out ailing local banks as well as spur
economic growth. -- Dow Jones

;AFP;
ANPAf..r..
MoneyMater-Argentine-GDP
Argentine economy fell 16.3%
JP/16/Money

Argentine economy fell 16.3%

BUENOS AIRES: Argentina's gross domestic product (GDP) plunged
a record 16.3 percent in the first quarter of 2002 compared to
the same period in 2001, a record drop, the government statistics
office reported Wednesday.

The overall drop in the economy was six percent when compared
to the last quarter of 2001, according to the Institute of
Statistics and Census (INDEC).

It was the largest drop in GDP since government recordkeeping
began. The figures show a contraction in GDP for the past 14
quarters, another unprecedented event in the country's economy
over the past century.

Argentina has been in a recession for nearly four years, with
unemployment at a record 25 percent and 50 percent of the
population now living in poverty. Credit has dried up since last
year, when Argentina suspended payments on its US$141-billion
public debt.

Since the beginning of the year annual income plummeting from
$8,000 to 2,000 per person, and food prices skyrocketing by 42.6
percent.

;AFP;
ANPAf..r..
MoneyMater-Vietnam-visitors
Foreign visitors to Vietnam rise
JP/16/Money

Foreign visitors to Vietnam rise

HANOI: The number of international visitors arriving in
Vietnam in the first half of this year rose 10 percent from the
same period a year ago to 1.275 million, the official Vietnam
News Agency reported Thursday.

The number of visitors from South Korea grew the most - 49
percent. Arrivals from Japan grew 25 percent, from France 13
percent, Australia 12 percent, and China 11 percent, VNA said.

The figures include both tourist and business travelers.

Vietnam's General Statistics Office is expected to release
more details next week.

The government is targeting 2.5 million international visitor
arrivals for the whole of 2002, up from 2.33 million last year.
-- Dow Jones/AP

;AFP;
ANPAf..r..
MoneyMater-Japan-tax
Japan's tax cuts to total US$8.1b
JP/16/Money

Japan's tax cuts to total US$8.1b

TOKYO: A series of tax breaks planned for Japanese companies
for the year to March 2004 in a bid to spur fresh economic growth
will total less than US$8.1 billion, a top official said
Thursday.

The plans involve offering tax incentives for research and
corporate capital spending in hi-tech areas, and the reform of
gift and inheritance taxes, said Hiromitsu Ishi, head of the
government's Tax Commission.

"I estimate the size of the planned three-item tax incentives
will be less than one trillion yen ($8.1 billion)," Ishi told
AFP's financial newswire subsidiary AFX.

"In the tax reform for next fiscal year, the effective
corporate tax rate, which stands at 40.87 percent, is expected to
be lowered by two-to-three percentage points to the level seen in
Germany (of 38.44 percent)," Ishi said separately in a speech. --

;AFP;
ANPAf..r..
MoneyMater-Russia-capital-amnesty
Russia eyes capital amnesty
JP/16/Money

Russia eyes capital amnesty

MOSCOW: The Russian government has reportedly prepared a
capital amnesty bill aimed at returning tens of billions of
dollars illegally taken out the country and boosting investment
in local industry and markets.

The media reports came as President Vladimir Putin warned that
Western governments were about to crack down on Russians'
offshore accounts and urged businessmen to help government draft
a plan to bring their assets back home.

The new law would legalize the capital while forcing Russians
to pay a one-off 13-percent income tax on their holdings, the
Vedomosti daily reported citing unnamed cabinet officials.

It would require people and businesses to move 25 percent of
their assets into Russian banks but allow them to keep the rest
of their capital abroad.

Vedomosti quoted government estimates as saying that US$300
billion (323 billion euros) have been illegally taken out of the
country over the last 12 years and that the measure could see
about one-third of that sum return to Russia. -- AFP