"The position is still safe because it could still meet the needs for imports and government foreign debt payments for the next 5.4 months," the observer, Ryan Kiryanto, said here on Saturday.
Bank Indonesia (the central bank) has recorded the country`s foreign exchange reserves had dropped from US$105.1 billion at the end of May to US$98.1 billion at the end of June.
Ryan said the condition was still normal because it happened as a result of government foreign debt payment, fulfillment of state-owned obligations for imports of raw materials and the central bank`s intervention to curb or stop the drop of the rupiah exchange rate.
"On the other hand exports cannot as yet help curb dollar needs for imports of capital goods and raw materials as shown by the trade deficit," he said.
Even if the foreign exchange reserves are down below US$100 billion it need not be worried about because the most important thing is that economic fundamentals remain maintained well while economic pressures in the future would decline in line with the US and Japan economic recovery and the halting in stages of the US fiscal stimulus, he said.
Ryan said the most important thing is that BI must always maintain the dollar needs so that the rupiah would not depreciate wildly and market confidence is maintained well.
To increase the foreign exchange reserves he said the country needs to take all-out efforts to boost exports, reduce imports of consumer goods, reschedule government and private foreign debts, create good investment climate and stop foreign exchange credits for the time being, he said.
(H-YH/A014)
Reporter: Dody Ardiansyah
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2013
