Indonesia Reactivates Sale of 9- and 12-Month BI Certificates to Aid Rupiah
Jakarta. Indonesia's central bank sold nearly Rp 6 trillion ($415 million) of its newly reactivated nine- and 12-month Bank Indonesia certificates, or SBI, in a bid to deepen the country's money market and stabilize the rupiah.
Bank Indonesia (BI) last week said it would step up policies to make the market more attractive such as by reintroducing longer tenor paper as well as improving the benchmarking of overnight money market rates.
"This SBI reactivation is an effort to provide instrument variety for money market participants, including to foreign investors, who invest in the Indonesian money market," Nanang Hendarsah, a senior BI official, said on Monday (23/07).
BI data shows that it last sold nie- and 12-month SBI in December 2016, totaling around 1.5 trillion rupiah. Since then, BI instead sold its deposit certificate, which can only be sold to domestic buyers, as well as an Islamic SBI.
Foreigners will be able to buy SBI in the secondary market, Hendarsah added.
On Monday, the rupiah strengthened to 14,470. On Friday, the day after BI held the policy rate unchanged, it hit 14,525, the weakest level since October 2015.
The rupiah this year has lost more than 6 percent against the dollar, making it one of the worst performing emerging market currencies.
Bank Indonesia hiked its benchmark rate by a total of 100 basis points in May and June to help shore up the currency, and it has maintained intervention in the forex and bond markets.
Reuters
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