TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Agus Martowardojo said credit growth in June only reached 7.8 percent, down from 8.7 percent in May. With these data, said Agus, the central bank thus corrected its 2017 credit growth projection to 8.0-10 percent.
"Our main reason for the correction is that as of June the year-to-date credit growth was below 3.0 percent. But by 2018 we still believe credit growth can reach 10-12 percent," Agus said in a press conference in Jakarta, Tuesday, August 22.
Read: Bank Indonesia Inflation Rate at 002 Percent in August
Bank Indonesia Deputy Governor Perry Warjiyo said that to push for lower bank interest rates, especially lending rates, BI had lowered the 7-Days Reverse Repo Rate by 25 bps to 4.5 percent.
"We also decided to lower the interest rates of other monetary instruments," he said.
BI estimates that with lower interest rates, the long-term interest rate decline will be greater.
"An interest rate decline for the term structure of monetary operation will force banks to channel credits with existing liquidity," Perry said.
In terms of macroprudential policy, according to Perry, Bank Indonesia is preparing a spatial loan-to-value policy.
"We also encourage banks to finance the economy, not only from credits but also through securities. So, what we will examine is the expansion of loan-to-funding ratio," Perry said.
ANGELINA ANJAR SAWITRI
