Illustrative photo (Source: indonesia-investments.com)
Jakarta (VNA) - The Indonesian government aims to bring the lending rate across the banking system down to a single digit, as part of its attempt to create more affordable financing to stoke growth in the country, according to the Jakarta Post on February 23.
The current lending rate is 12 percent per year.
Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution said in order to achieve that goal, managing prices to lower inflation is one method, adding that the government will strive to maintain inflation at 4 percent, enabling Bank Indonesia (BI) to perform its own assessment and take decisions that allow its policy rate to be close to that level.
The BI rate currently sits at 7 percent, down recently by 25 percentage points from its January position of 7.25 percent.
The central bank has always maintained the rate at above 7 percent for more than two years, since September 2013, as an important way to combat soaring inflation and put the brakes on an overheating economy.-VNA
