Indonesian central bank buys gov’t bonds in primary market hinh anh 1Indonesian central bank buys gov’t bonds in primary market (Photo: https://www.thejakartapost.com/)

Jakarta (VNA) - Bank Indonesia (BI) has directly purchased 1.7 trillion Rp (108 million USD) worth of sharia sovereign bonds during an auction held by the government in its first such purchases in the primary market.

BI Governor Perry Warjiyo said the central bank acted on April 21 as a noncompetitive bidder during the auction and only bought “a small portion” of the bonds in order to maintain low inflation levels.

The government pocketed a total of 9.98 trillion Rp of proceeds from the auction to finance the country’s widening budget deficit, he added.

The Indonesian government issued six series of sharia bonds on the same day, aiming to raise 7 trillion Rp to 14 trillion Rp to finance the 2020 state budget.

According to the Indonesian Ministry of Finance, the government will issue nearly 450 trillion Rp worth of so-called pandemic bonds to finance efforts to combat the health crisis and economic turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

The government is also planning to increase its bond sales target by 160.2 trillion Rp to 549.6 trillion Rp this year to address the country’s budget deficit, which could reach 5.07 percent of gross domestic product (GDP)./.
VNA