Policy On BI Rate Should Not Burder Growth

Jakarta, Oct 10 (Antara) - Finance Deputy Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said Bank Indonesia (BI/the central bank) needed to consider the country`s economic conditions in deciding its interest rate so that it would not burden the economy at home. "If the rupiah exchange rate is stable and inflation is under control why should BI continues to increase its benchmark rate," Bambang said here on Wednesday. He said that monetary policies should continue to be balanced with fiscal policies so that the efforts to reduce the country`s current account deficit could be reduced without necessarily sacrificing the economic growth. "It is the BI who has monetary authority but in principle the government fiscal policy should accompany the monetary policy," he said. Earlier, the BI Board of Governors decided on Tuesday to maintain its benchmark rate at 7.25 percent. The meeting also decided to maintain its deposit facility rate at 5.50 percent and landing rate facility at 7.25 percent. BI said it would monitor the developments of global and domestic economies and to optimize the mixture of monetary and macroeconomic polices to ensure that inflation would remain under control, rupiah exchange rate would remain stable and the current account deficit would decline to a sustainable level.