BI Rates Is Unchanged
January 7th, 2010
It’s just like what I have read from IDX news and also on Bloomberg by Aloysius Unditu and Novrida Manurung. We hope that that unchanged rates will be good for our market and overall economy in Indonesia. I’ll post some news that I pick up from there.
Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) — Indonesia’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged for a fifth month, saying it isn’t concerned about inflation pressures in the first half.
Bank Indonesia maintained its reference rate at 6.5 percent, the lowest level since its introduction in July 2005, according to a statement in Jakarta today. All 18 economists in a Bloomberg News survey predicted the decision.
Inflation in Southeast Asia’s largest economy held near a decade low in December, giving the central bank more time before it joins other Asian policy makers in raising borrowing costs. Barclays Plc and HSBC Holdings Plc expect the threat of faster consumer-price gains this year may prompt Bank Indonesia to act next quarter.
“Still-subdued inflationary pressures have definitely left the central bank in the comfort zone, allowing it to watch what is happening to inflation and economic growth before embarking on any monetary tightening,” said Robert Prior-Wandesforde, senior Asia economist at HSBC in Singapore. “We continue to expect the earliest tightening to come only in the later part of the second quarter.”
Indonesia’s central bank halted cutting rates last August after slashing borrowing costs for nine straight months to shield the $514 billion economy from the worst global recession since the 1930s. The nation has fared better than its neighbors during the worldwide slump, relying less on exports and enjoying consumer confidence buoyed by the most stable political climate since the ouster of former dictator Suharto in 1998.