Foreign Investors Still Keen on Venturing in Indonesia

Jakarta (Antara) - Deputy Governor of Bank Indonesia Perry Warjiyo said foreign investors still have strong interest in investing in the country pointing to high bid to auction ratio for state bonds on Thursday. Perry said bids that reached US$17.5 billion or 4.4 times larger than offer indicated that foreign investors were still keen on doing business in the country. "What happened yesterday showed that amid great uncertainties, with tapering (by the Fed), interest in buying state bonds and government global bonds is still strong," Perry here on Friday. He said the tendency to bid for state bonds is increasing through the year to follow improvement in the economic condition with narrowing deficit and inflation being well under control. "Growth is still slow but is still higher than the other countries, and note worthy is the financial stability is improving," he said. He said in a meeting with the finance ministry, BI suggested the plan to issue the state and government bonds after the Fed decided to trim its financial stimulus from US$85 billion to US$75 billion a month starting January, 2014. On Thursday, the government issued bonds worth US$4 billion in US dollar denomination in a bid to attract global investors. The issuance of the bonds was also aimed at strengthening rupiah in facing the impact of the US central bank's decision to cut its massive financial stimulus. The finance ministry reported that the bonds were 4.4 times oversubscribed with bids totaling US$17.5 billion. The government allocated 66 percent of 10-year bonds for US investors, 17 percent for European investors and 6 percent for Asian investors not including Indonesians, and 11 percent for foreign fund managers. The 30-year bonds were 77 percent allocated for US investors, 16 percent for European investors , 11 percent for Asian not including Indonesian investors and 3 percent for local investors. (*)