THAILAND'S CAR SALES EXCEED INDONESIA'S

Jakarta, Feb 6 (ANTARA) - Thailand once again outclassed Indonesia in car sales after successfully selling 615,000 units of cars in 2008, an automotive businessman said.

"I don't know how Thailand calculates its car sales but its report mentioned that its car sales in 2008 reached 615,000 units," chairman of the Indonesian Motor Vehicle Industries Association (Gaikindo), Bambang Trisulo said.
It was previously known that the highest car sales in ASEAN were those in Indonesia whose total sales reached 603,000 units, Trisulo said.
However, Thailand in its report to the Auto International Association (AIA) said its 2008 car sales reached 615,000 units.
Trisulo said that the total car sales of Thailand last December was 58,000 units while those of Indonesia reached 37,000 units.
In January meanwhile, the tentative total car sales of Indonesia were recorded at 32,000 to 33,000 units. While those in December totaled 39,000 to 40,000 units, he said.
The Gaikindo said that the lowering of Bank Indonesia (BI)'s benchmark interest rate by 50 pasis points from 8.75 percent to 8.25 percent would impact banks' credit interest rates, so that the automotive sector could be generated.
But the reduction in banks credit interest rates as result of cuts in BI benchmark rate would be felt by the automotive sector in one to two years.
Bank Indonesia (BI/the central bank) lowered its benchmark rate by 50 basis points from 8.75 percent to 8.25 percent on Wednesday in an effort to boost a better growth of national economy.
Last month, BI cut its benchmark rate by 50 basis points from 9.25 percent to 8.75 percent. At that moment, BI saw a good inflation development.
In December 2008, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), a 0.04 percent deflation also took place, because of cuts in the prices of subsidized fuel oils.***