RI to receive up to $1.9 b in loans from World Bank

Written by Writer on Friday, October 17th, 2008

RI to receive up to $1.9 b in loans from World Bank

Antara , Jakarta | Fri, 10/17/2008 | National

The World Bank has agreed to raise its program loans for Indonesia in 2009 to US$1.9 billion from US$1.4 billion to plug a deficit in the 2009 state budget, a minister said.

The loans are outside standby loan commitments worth US$2 billion that can be withdrawn when the market for state bonds is not conducive, State Minister for National Development Planning/Chief of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) Paskah Suzetta said here on Thursday.

Suzetta said he received the assurance when he held talks with the representative of the World Bank to help protect the domestic market from the impact of the current global financial crisis.

“We are on the list of the World Bank`s priorities,” he said.

He said the World Bank has been committed to raising its standby loans for Indonesia. However, the amount of the standby loans will depend on the availability of standby loans and other countries` demand for such loans.

Therefore, the government will soon negotiate with the World Bank on the scheme and terms of standby loans to know the ratio of standby loans to program loans, he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Head of the State Minister for National Development Planning Lukita Dinarsyah Tuwo said the government will use the program loans to offset the 2009 state budget deficit estimated at Rp52.732 trillion or 1 percent of the country`s gross domestic product.

He said the World Bank`s program loans for Indonesia in 2009 will total Rp26.4 trillion or US$2.8 billion.