Indonesia, Singapore announce currency swap agreement

• Oct 11, 2018

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong have agreed that Bank Indonesia (BI) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) would have a currency swap agreement in facing the global uncertainty.

The agreement was announced when the leaders met in Bali on Thursday.

“Amid the global financial market uncertainty, cooperation is our focus. We welcome swap and repo agreements between BI and the MAS with a total value of US$10 billion,” said Jokowi at the Laguna Hotel, as reported by kontan.co.id.

Lee made a similar statement, saying the agreement was in response to external conditions affecting all market across the globe, including ASEAN countries.

“To respond to this situation, our central bank and BI will cooperate. Under the cooperation, BI could hold local currency swap to dollar with MAS with the total of $10 billion,” Lee added.

Meanwhile, BI Governor Perry Warjiyo said the two leaders believed that both countries could withstand global uncertainty.

“This region, including Indonesia, can face the global uncertainty. The two leaders agreed to strengthen both bilateral and regional cooperation to strengthen monetary and financial stability,” Perry added.

He said the two central banks would follow up on the agreement. “After the basic understanding between the two leaders, the central banks would [work out the details of the] cooperation. We will announce it later,” Perry added. (bbn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/10/11/indonesia-singapore-announce-currency-swap-agreement.html