Banks' Assets Sharply Increase

VIVAnews - Total assets of national banking rose by 18.9 percent within a year to Rp 2,037 trillion (US$171.8 billion) in January 2009.

Bank Indonesia's monetary outlook publicized by March 10 mentioned that there is a chance that banking assets continue growing.

It was an increase of around Rp 367 trillion (US$30.9 billion). One of the causes of the increase was the considerable percentage of credit growth, which reached almost 30 percent in 2008.

"This is a signal that banks' intermediation function went well in 2008," Board of Governors of Bank Indonesia (BI) stated.

In addition to assets, BI claimed that banks' capital adequacy ratio increased by 17.6 percent in January 2009 compared to December 2008. During the same period, the net interest income slightly decreased from Rp 10.8 trillion (US$911.3 million) to Rp 10.4 trillion (US$877.5 million). 

However, BI acknowledged that as of 2009, banks' intermediation function started to weaken compared to the previous year. This was reflected from credit downturn in January 2009 with Rp 1,325 trillion (US$111.7 billion) compared to December with Rp 1,353 trillion (US$114.1 billion).

--

Translated by: Bonardo Maulana Wahono