JAKARTA, April 14 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian central bank, Bank Indonesia, on Tuesday kept its benchmark interest rate steady as the lender prioritizes efforts to prop up rupiah amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Bank Indonesia refrained from reducing further its seven-day-reverse repurchase rate despite the flagging economic growth prospect and held the key rate at 4.5 percent on Tuesday after edging down it by 50 basis points in the last two months, Governor of Bank Indonesia Perry Warjiyo said.
Warjiyo said that the decision was made to maintain the rupiah stability amid the global financial market uncertainty.
Bank Indonesia has carried out intervention in the financial market and last month its foreign exchange reserves shrank by 9.4 billion U.S. dollars to 121 billion dollars as the lender intensified its move, according to the bank.
The Indonesian currency slightly appreciated by 0.4 percent to 15,630 against the greenback at 4:45 p.m. (local time) on Tuesday, according to a dealer.
For year to date, rupiah depreciates by 12.2 percent against the U.S. dollar, it said.
Indonesia's current account deficit widened to 2.8 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the final quarter last year from 2.7 percent of the GDP in the previous quarter, and for the whole of last year it touched 2.72 percent of the GDP, according to the bank's data.
Bank Indonesia will get more steams as the government plans to partly use its 4.3 billion-U.S. dollar funds from the U.S. dollar-dominated bond issuance to add the bank's foreign exchange reserves, according to Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati.
Besides, the lender has got the U.S. Federal Reserve's commitment to providing a 60 billion-U.S. dollar credit line which can be used by Bank Indonesia when demands of liquidity rise to safeguard rupiah.
