Japanese yen banknotes are pictured in this undated file photo (Photo: AFP)Jakarta (VNA) – The Indonesian Finance Ministryannounced on July 3 that the country has raised 100billion JPY (930 million USD) from the issuance of five-tranche Samurai bondsto offset the national budget deficit and fund the response to the COVID-19pandemic.
In its statement, the ministrysaid this is the first issuance of the sovereignJapanese yen in 2020 and the first issuance from an Asian country since thepandemic hit.
The money raised will be used to finance the budget deficit, as well as fundCOVID-19 relief and recovery efforts, it noted.
The Indonesian government faces the daunting task of funding the budget deficitof 6.34 percent of gross domestic product this year, with 695.2 trillion Rp (49billion USD) set aside to bolster its economy and strengthen its health caresystem.
The government is planning to offer 900.4 trillion Rp worth of bonds in thesecond half of the year to fund the country’s response to the pandemic.
It had raised 630.5trillion Rp worth of debt papers until June this year, including 4.3 billionUSD from a three-tranche US-dollar bond in April and 2.5 billion USD from athree-tranche global sukuk (sharia-compliant bond) last month.
The joint leadarrangers of the above-mentioned Samurai bond issuance are Daiwa Securities,Nomura Securities, SMBC Nikko Securities and Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan StanleySecurities.
The government now expects the country’s full-year growth of only 1 percentunder the baseline scenario in 2020 or full-year contraction of 0.4 percent inthe worst-case scenario./.
VNA
