Indonesian central bank buys gov’t bonds in primary market (Photo: https://www.thejakartapost.com/)Jakarta (VNA) - Bank Indonesia(BI) has directly purchased 1.7 trillion Rp (108 million USD) worth of shariasovereign bonds during an auction held by the government in itsfirst such purchases in the primary market.
BI Governor Perry Warjiyo said thecentral bank acted on April 21 as a noncompetitive bidder during the auction and onlybought “a small portion” of the bonds in order to maintain low inflation levels.
The government pocketed a total of 9.98trillion Rp of proceeds from the auction to finance the country’s wideningbudget deficit, he added.
The Indonesian government issued sixseries of sharia bonds on the same day, aiming to raise 7 trillion Rp to 14trillion Rp to finance the 2020 state budget.
According to the Indonesian Ministry of Finance,the government will issue nearly 450 trillion Rp worth of so-called pandemicbonds to finance efforts to combat the health crisis and economic turmoilcaused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
The government is also planning toincrease its bond sales target by 160.2 trillion Rp to 549.6 trillion Rp thisyear to address the country’s budget deficit, which could reach 5.07 percent of gross domestic product(GDP)./.
VNA
