Indonesian central bank aims to sell long-term gov't bonds

Indonesian central bank governor Darmin Nasution said on Wednesday that the bank plans to sell long- term government bond as an effort to boost financial stability. The plan was made as the weakening global economy may lead the global investors to pull out their liquidity from emerging market that could trigger instability in financial sectors. And the weakening of the global demand of commodity may also weaken Indonesia's rupiah against the U.S. dollar. "So far we focus on short-term and mid-term government debt paper (bond). Going forward we can not persistently focus on the short-term and mid-term bonds that their prices will be higher and not interested," he said at the Ritz Carlton Hotel here. Nasution has said that the central bank would be in the market to intensify intervention at currency and bond market for stabilization. "The long-term government bond can be an alternative for keeping funds (for stability)," he said. Another effort to maintain the stability, the central bank governor said that the bank also encouraged to deepen the shallow financial market. "Our financial market is shallow compared to those in Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippine," said Nasution, citing that the Philippine sovereign debt status was lower than Indonesia, one notch below Indonesia's status of investment grade. Indonesian central bank on Tuesday decided to lower its down limit of its deposit facility from 4.55 percent (150 basis points below the bank's interest rate) to 4 percent as an effort to boost the liquidity and boost transaction among banks in face of the uncertainty of the global economy, spokesman of the bank Difi A. Djohansyah said. But, the upper limit of the interest was remain at 7 percent, he said. The decision was to take affect on Jan. 18, the spokesman said. The central bank kept its benchmark interest rate at 6 percent on its meeting on Jan. 12 amid the concern that the government plan to ban private cars from consuming subsidized fuel on April 1, and weakening rupiah. The bank cut the basic rate by 25 basis points on October and 50 basis points in November to 6 percent that led rupiah depreciated to more than 6 percent.