Bank Indonesia resists pressure to cut interest rates

Jakarta

INDONESIA'S central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged for a third straight month, resisting monetary easing less than two weeks after the government said it would do so gradually.

The central bank also said it will loosen lending rules to support growth, even as it resisted pressure to cut interest rates. "To keep the economic growth momentum, Bank Indonesia (BI) has loosened macroprudential policy" and will soon revise the loan-deposit-ratio reserve-requirement regulation, the loan-to-value policy for mortgage loans as well as downpayments on automotive loans, BI said in a statement in Jakarta on Tuesday, without giving details.