The position of official reserve assets was equivalent to finance 7.6 months of imports or 7.3 months of imports and servicing government’s external debt, which is well above the international adequacy standard of three months imports, Executive Director of Bank Indonesia (BI) Communication Department, Onny Widjanarko, said in a statement received in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Bank Indonesia considers that the official reserve assets position was able to support the external sector resilience and maintain macroeconomic and financial system stability.
The development of official reserve assets in December 2019 was mainly attributable by oil & gas foreign exchange receipts, withdrawal of government foreign loan, and other foreign exchange receipts.
Moving forward, Bank Indonesia views that the official reserve assets remain adequate, supported by the stability and solid domestic economy prospect.
Vice Finance Minister Suahasil Nazara has projected Indonesia’s economy to register a slower paced growth in 2019 as compared to the previous year owing to the impact of the global economic downturn.
Indonesia’s economy is expected to grow at 5.05 percent in 2019 than 5.17 percent last year, he remarked during the Mandiri Market Outlook 2020 in Jakarta on Wednesday (Dec 4, 2019).
In just the third quarter of 2019, the national economy grew 5.02 percent year-on-year (yoy).
The 5.02-percent growth is an optimistic target as the economies of peer nations, including India and China, experienced deeper economic slowdown, he pointed out.
The outlook for economic growth has been revised down by multilateral financial institutions, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The IMF had last slashed the projection for global economic growth to three percent, from 3.2 percent for this year.
"The fact that the Indonesian economy grew 5.02 percent in the third quarter of 2019 is good amidst the current global situation. The year-end economic growth target of 5.05 percent is not low, but it may offer sufficient momentum, he stated.
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Reporter: Azis Kurmala
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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