Indonesia seeks to enlarge bilateral swap agreements (BSA) with
China and the Republic of Korea, while promoting the implementation of
the agreement with Japan to battle a slumping currency.
The country’s Minister of Industry M. S. Hydayat said that the nation
plans to ink a BSA with China in October when Chinese President Xi
Jinping visits Indonesia.
Indonesia makes every effort to
deal with the country’s current account deficit because its
import-export activities are heavily influenced by the financial and
public debt crises in the country’s two key trade partners – the US and
Europe, he said.
In August, Indonesia signed a BSA worth
12 billion USD with Japan as the value of Indonesia’s Rupiah (Rp) fell
by more than 16 percent compared to the USD since the beginning of the
year.
Indonesian Minister of Finance Chatib Basri said
Indonesia’s Rp fell to the weakest level since April 2009, extending a
slump that made it the worst-performing emerging-market currency this
year, adding that t he country saw a deficit of 9.8 billion USD in
current accounts in the second quarter of this year.
In
2009, Indonesia and China agreed to enter into a swap contract worth 100
billion yuan (16.3 billion USD) for three years in order to improve the
shortage of foreign currency in Indonesia and promote trade and
investment cooperation between the two countries.-VNA