Indonesia will cut sales of its bonds by a third and plan to borrow loan from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank(ADB), Japan and Australia, the country finance ministry said on Monday.
Indonesia's budget deficit is projected at 51.43 trillion rupiah (some 4.36 billion U.S. dollars) or 1 percent of the GDP in 2009.
"Should the sales from bond be not sufficient to fill the budget gap, we will borrow from the World Bank, ADB, Australia or Japan," director general of debt management in the ministry Rahmat Waluyanto told Xinhua by phone.
The director said that the government had approached the foreign lenders which earlier promised to provide loans to Indonesia.
"We ask them to be ready and provide standby loans for us, should the bond markets get worst," he said.
ADB has committed to providing one billion U.S. dollar loan, said Waluyanto.
Besides, the director said that the government also planned to sell bonds to rich provinces, such as the provinces of East Kalimantan in Borneo Island and Riau province in Sumatra.
The biggest Southeast Asia economy is expected to sell 5 billion U.S. dollars bonds in domestic market and 1.5 billion U.S. dollars bonds in overseas market this year, he said.
The government has bought back 41 billion rupiah (some 3.89 million U.S. dollars) worth of government bonds via an auction at the end of last month to stabilize decreasing bond prices, according to the finance ministry.
The Indonesian authorities are scrambling to contain the impact of the global financial turmoil due to a fear that the country could be the next victim of the crisis.
The authorities try to raise confidence on economy amid worries over the global flight from risky-assets at the emerging market, including Indonesia.
The country has trimmed its economic target to the range of 5.5 to 6.0 percent next years.
(Xinhua News Agency November 24, 2008)
