SBI rate falls to 13.78%
SBI rate falls to 13.78%
JAKARTA: The weighted average interest rate on the benchmark one-month SBI promissory notes fell to 13.78 percent at an auction Wednesday from 14.07 percent a week ago, the central bank said.
The fall was in line with market expectations.
Bank Indonesia said it accepted Rp 18 trillion (US$2 billion), or 56.76 percent of the bids received at the auction.
The central bank has been trying to drive domestic interest rates lower to help reduce the cost of servicing bonds taken on by the government to bail out local banks after the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Earlier Wednesday, the central bank asserted that it sees more room to guide interest rates lower in coming months on easing inflation pressure and rupiah stability against the dollar.
Bank Indonesia officials have said the central bank is trying to push the SBI benchmark rate down to around 13.5 percent. by the end of the year. -- Dow Jones
;Agencies; ANPAf..r.. MoneyMatter-Indonesian-grow Indonesian to grow 3.86%: Minister JP/16/Money
Indonesian to grow 3.86%: Minister
JAKARTA: Indonesia's finance minister said Wednesday that he expects the economy to grow 3.86 percent in the third quarter compared with the same period of last year.
Such growth would be slightly higher than 3.50 percent on-year growth in gross domestic product in the second quarter due to a pick up in economic activity, Finance Minister Boediono said.
"We expect economic activity to accelerate in the third and fourth quarters," Boediono said. Private and public spending are likely to lead this increase, he added.
Improving growth prospects mean the country is likely to meet its 3.98 percent growth target this year, he added. Fourth- quarter growth is likely to be 5.76 percent on year, he said.
Latest figures for Indonesian trade in July show exports were recovering and imports picking up due to more investment.
Indonesia's economy has relied on government spending and local demand for most of the year amid falling global demand for its exports and a lack of investment. -- Dow Jones
;Agencies; ANPAf..r.. MoneyMatter-Argentina-banking Argentina eases banking restrictions JP/16/Money
Argentina eases banking restrictions
BUENOS AIRES: Argentina's government is to partially lift banking restrictions on savings accounts that contain no more than 7,000 pesos (US$1,949), Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna announced Tuesday.
The measure will come into force from Oct. 1.
Lavagna also said the government intended to propose swapping savings funds frozen by the banks since last December for state guaranteed bonds, in order to bring some normality back to the financial system.
Mired in its worst economic crisis in a century, Argentina is looking for the IMF to reschedule interest payments worth US$14 billion on its debt until the end of 2003. -- AFP
;Agencies; ANPAf..r.. MoneyMatter-German-surplus German trade surplus widens JP/16/Money
German trade surplus widens
WIESBADEN, Germany: Germany's trade surplus widened in the month of July, with both exports and imports declining year-on- year in a reflection of the slagging economy, officials reported Wednesday.
The Federal Statistics Office said exports fell 0.4 per cent to 55.1 billion euros (US$53.7 billion). But imports dropped more strongly, so that the month finished with a 12.1 billion euro trade surplus, compared with 9.4 billion euros in July 2001.
For the first seven months, Germany's trade surplus reached 73.8 billion euros, up by about 40 per cent from the 53 billion euros in the same period of 2001, the office said.
The balance on current account - the sum of visible trade, services and transfers - Germany posted a surplus of 22.9 billion euros in the seven-month period through July. A year earlier, the current accounts showed a deficit of 8.0 billion euros. -- DPA
;Agencies; ANPAf..r.. MoneyMatter-IEA-oil IEA holds oil forecasts steady JP/16/Money
IEA holds oil forecasts steady
PARIS: The International Energy Agency held its 2002 and 2003 global oil demand growth forecasts steady in its monthly report for August, published on Wednesday.
The Paris-based agency said it still estimated growth in demand this year of 220,000 barrels per day after revising its forecast 20 percent lower in its report for July. It also stood by its 2003 estimate 1.1 million bpd for 2003 as it did in the previous report.
It noted that global oil production had fallen by 580,000 barrels per day in August from the figure for July to 76.1 million barrels per day.
The oil production of the 10 countries of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries excluding Iraq reached 23.4 million bpd in August, 1.7 million bpd more than the output quotas the 11-member grouping has fixed for itself, the IEA said.
Including Iraq, OPEC's production fell by 250,000 bpd in August from July because a 20,000 bpd increase by the 10 OPEC countries other than Iraq was not sufficient to make up for a fall of 270,000 bpd in Iraqi exports, the IEA explained. -- AFP