VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesia has raised another Rp 62.62 trillion (US$4.05 billion) from government debt papers (SUN) and is in talks with several development banks to raise another $750 million to finance its widening state budget amid the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The Finance Ministry’s director for government debt papers, Deni Ridwan, said the government had issued three series of bonds through private placements with commercial and shariah banks on Monday. Deni told The Jakarta Post by text message on Tuesday that banks are the buyers in the private placements as they look to meet Bank Indonesia’s new requirement of higher reserves in government bonds. Bank Indonesia (BI) requires that bank buy government bonds after cutting banks’ reserve requirement ratio by 200 basis points (bps) for commercial banks and 50 bps for sharia banks, providing the financial system with Rp 102 trillion in liquidity in a move that is expected to help the government fund the COVID-19 battle, Governor Perry Warjiyo said recently. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said that the government is also in talks to earn $750 million worth of loans from several development banks, namely the Islamic Development Bank, the World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). The World Bank and the AIIB were also committed to providing $250 million in funds each for Indonesia’s COVID-19 response, according to the minister. The Asian Development Bank (ADB), meanwhile, has approved $1.5 billion in loans to support Indonesia’s efforts to strengthen public health and the economy//JP