This is the first time foreign and domestic investment in Indonesia reached Rp100 trillion in a quarterly period."Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian central bank (Bank Indonesia/BI) has announced that the countrys foreign exchange reserves last October were US$97 billion, an increase of US$1.3 billion over September.
The BI said on its website on Wednesday that the amount of the foreign exchange was equal to 5.5 months imports, or 5.3 months import plus the governments debt installment.
BI said this amount was enough to support the resilience of the external sector and above the international adequacy standard.
The increase in foreign exchange in October 2013 was boosted by oil and gas exports that belonged to the government.
Market players positive responses to policies adopted by BI and the government has also helped boost the flow of foreign investment in Bank Indonesia Certificates (SBI) and State securities (SBN). This contributed to a slackening of the pressures on the Rupiah exchange rate against the US dollar.
In the meantime, foreign and domestic investments in the country during the July-September 2013 period reached Rp100 trillion, the largest amount ever recorded by Indonesia in its quarterly investment history, the investment coordinating board said last week.
"This is the first time foreign and domestic investment in Indonesia reached Rp100 trillion in a quarterly period," Chief of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) Mahendra Siregar said.
Investments in the third quarter of 2013 reached Rp100.5 trillion, an increase of 22.9 percent, compared to the corresponding period in the previous year, which stood at Rp81.8 trillion.
"With this high figure, we have to maintain the growth of investments and their continuation," the BKPM chief said.
He noted that foreign investments still dominated the investment figure, yet domestic investment also showed an increase.
In the first quarter of 2013, foreign investment was recorded at Rp67 trillion, an increase of 18.4 percent from the same period one year earlier at Rp56.6 trillion.
Domestic investment in the third quarter of the year stood at Rp33.5 trillion, up 32.9 percent from the same period in 2012, which was Rp25.2 trillion.
The largest domestic investment was made in the electricity, gas and water sectors, reaching Rp15.6 trillion; the food industry at Rp4 trillion; construction at Rp3.6 trillion; basic and pharmaceutical chemical industries at Rp2.4 trillion; and the basic metal industry, metal goods, machinery and electronics at Rp1.4 trillion.
The largest investment was made in the mining sector, totaling 1.4 billion US dollars; transportation equipment and other transportation industries at 0.9 billion US dollars; basic metal, metal goods, machinery and electronic industries worth 0.9 billion US dollars; basic chemical, chemical goods and pharmacy industries at 0.8 billion US dollars; and food industries worth 0.5 billion US dollars.
(Uu.A014/INE/KR-BSR/B003)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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