SBI rate slides slightly
SBI rate slides slightly
JAKARTA: The weighted average interest rate on one-month SBI
promissory notes slid slightly at the central bank's weekly
auction Wednesday.
The one-month SBI notes stood at 15.16 percent, down from
15.17 percent last week's auction, Bank Indonesia said. It was,
however, higher than market expectations of around 15.07 percent.
Bank Indonesia also said it accepted Rp 20.50 trillion (US$2.3
billion) in bids at the auction, or 93.02 percent of total bids.
Bank Indonesia has been guiding domestic interest rates lower
slowly amid receding inflationary pressures and the rupiah's
appreciation against the dollar.
Lower interest rates should accelerate economic growth and
help reduce the costs shouldered by the government to bail out
local banks. -- Dow Jones
;Agencies;
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Moneymatter
BoJ leaves monetary policy unchanged
JP/16/Money
BoJ leaves monetary policy unchanged
TOKYO: The Bank of Japan said Wednesday it would keep monetary
policy unchanged following a two-day policy board meeting.
The central bank decided unanimously to maintain the level of
liquidity in the financial system by leaving unchanged the level
of targeted reserves in its current account around 10 to 15
trillion yen (US$79.7 billion to $119.5 billion).
"Should there be a risk of financial market instability, such
as a surge in liquidity demand, the bank will provide more
liquidity irrespective of the guideline above," the central bank
said in a statement identical to that released after its previous
board meetings.
The announcement had almost no impact on the foreign exchange
market, as it was expected, said Naoya Murata, a dealer at UFJ
Holdings.
"No one was paying any attention to the meeting," he said. --
AFP
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Moneymatter
HK bankruptcy cases triple
JP/16/Money
HK bankruptcy cases triple
HONG KONG: Bankruptcies in Hong Kong have tripled with 8,104
bankruptcy orders issued in the first five months of this year
alone, government figures showed Wednesday.
Last year over the same period there were 2,735 cases of
bankruptcy.
Just in May, 2,294 personal and corporate bankruptcies were
recorded, 2.78 times the 823 cases registered in May 2001, the
figures from the Official Receiver's Office showed.
There are fears the number of bankruptcies will continue to
rise amid the economic slump and record unemployment in Hong
Kong.
Hong Kong's economy shrank 0.9 percent in the first quarter
this year from a year earlier.
Hong Kong's economy grew only 0.1 percent last year amid the
global slowdown after jumping 10.5 percent in 2000. -- AFP
;Agencies;
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Moneymatter
KL palm oil output up 7%
JP/16/Money
KL palm oil output up 7%
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's crude palm oil (CPO) output rose
seven percent month-on-month in May while palm oil exports
increased by nine percent, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board said
Wednesday.
CPO output increased 60,330 tons to 924,797 while palm oil
exports were up 76.098 tons to 939,971, it said in a statement.
But palm oil stocks dropped 12.2 percent to 929,472 tons,
against 1.1 million tons in April. Of this total, CPO stocks
dropped 6.8 percent to 506,780 tons.
Output of crude palm kernel oil remained constant at 108,849
tons in May compared to 108,852 tons the previous month.
But palm kernel oil exports dropped 12.2 percent to 52,542
tons while stocks declined 8.6 percent to 216,687 tons.
Dealers said CPO prices had surged in May on strong buying
interest from India, China and Pakistan.
The strengthening Indonesian rupiah, which made Malaysian palm
oil increasingly cheaper and more sought after, also boosted CPO
prices, they added. -- AFP
;Agencies;
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Moneymatter
FDI in Vietnam down 26%
JP/16/Money
FDI in Vietnam down 26%
HANOI: Vietnam attracted just US$394 million' of foreign
investment in the first five months of 2002, marking a year-on-
year decline of 26 percent, the General Office of Statistic (GOS)
said Wednesday.
"With 209 projects licensed, the number of projects was up but
the capital inflow fell down," a GOS official said.
Eighty-two percent or about $322 million the total flowed into
the industrial and construction sectors and nearly 80 percent of
the projects located in the commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh city
and southern satellite provinces of Binh Duong and Dong Nai, the
official said.
South Korea was ranked first among the investors with 52
projects capitalized at $108 million, and Taiwan was the second
with $80 million, followed by Japan and Malaysia.
"It shows that Vietnam is still only attractive to Asian
investors while the United States, ranked 10 in the list and
European investors are still onlookers," he added. -- AFP