RI to get standby loan of $ 1 b

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 03/19/2009 6:23 PM

The Indonesian government is in a process to finalize of getting a standby loan worth US$ 1 billion (Rp 12 trillion) from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and the France government to help facing impacts of global economic crisis.

Hartadi A. Sarwono, deputy governor of Bank Indonesia (BI), said that his office was negotiating over the agreement in which Indonesia was expecting to receive $500 million from IDB and the remaining $ 500 million from the French government.

“Prior to the agreement, the government received $5.5 billion,” he told tempointeraktif.com.

He said that the country's deficit reserves would likely to go down from $ 51.63 billion to $ 48.79 billion by the end of the year due to the decreasing values of Rupiah.

“BI will continue look for efforts to keep our currency stabile. Thus far, our reserves which currently stand at $ 53. 7 billion are enough to keep the rupiah values in the market,” he said. (ewd)