Indonesia's foreign reserves reached a record-
breaking amount at 64 billion U.S. dollars as of October at the latest, a local media reported
here on Wednesday.
The Central Bank Deputy Governor Hartadi A Sarwono said that it was a significant increase from a month earlier that stood at 62.3 billion dollars.
According to Hartadi the rapid increase of foreign reserves was mainly due to an influx from oil and gas exports, and from foreign loans to the government.
"The increase is caused by oil and gas exports, which is in line with oil price increases,and government foreign loan disbursements from the World Bank," Hartadi was quoted by the Jakarta Globe as saying.
Economists have expressed concerns on the quick money inflows, they dubbed as "hot money", could drive up foreign exchange rates.
David Sumual, an economist at PT Bank Central Asia (BCA), said having high foreign reserves would increase investor confidence in the country.
He, however, said that since early this year foreign reserves had increased mainly through money flowing into short-term portfolio investments such as Bank Indonesia notes (SBI).