Bank Indonesia (BI) has decided to maintain the benchmark interest rate or the BI 7-Day Reverse Repo Rate (BI7DRR) at 3.5 percent following a meeting of its board of governors in Jakarta on Thursday.
The central bank has also kept the deposit facility and lending facility rates unchanged at 2.75 and 4.25 percent, respectively.
“This decision is in line with the need to maintain exchange rate stability and the financial system in the midst of low inflation forecasts and efforts to support economic growth,” BI Governor Perry Warjiyo said here on Thursday.
Going forward, BI will continue to optimize the entire policy mix to maintain the macroeconomic and financial system stability and support further economic improvement efforts through various measures, he added.
The first step will be to confirm the direction of the BI policy mix in 2022, as presented at the 2021 Bank Indonesia Annual Meeting on November 24, 2021, he said.
According to Warjiyo, BI’s monetary policy in 2022 will be directed more at maintaining stability in the financial markets.
Meanwhile, macroprudential policies, payment systems, deepening of money markets, and inclusive and green economic finance will seek to stoke economic growth, he said.
The second step will be to continue the rupiah exchange rate policy to maintain exchange rate stability in line with market fundamentals and mechanisms, and the third step will be to continue the monetary operations strategy to strengthen the effectiveness of the accommodative monetary policy, he added.
The fourth step will be to strengthen the transparency policy of the Basic Loan Interest Rate (SBDK) by deepening the development of the spread of credit interest rates to deposit rates per bank group, Warjiyo said.
The fifth step will be to continue the validity period of the tariff of Bank Indonesia National Clearing System (SKNBI) of Rp1 from the Central Bank to banks, and a maximum of Rp2,900 from banks to customers, he added.
The sixth step will be to add 15 million Quick Response Indonesia Standard (QRIS) users by 2022 to encourage an increase in QRIS transactions through coordination with payment service providers and relevant ministries/institutions, and the seventh step will be to facilitate trade and investment promotions to continue socializing the use of Local Currency Settlement (LCS), he informed.
“In December 2021 and January 2022, there will be investment promotions in China and Finland,” Warjiyo said.
Source: Antara News