“Our stance for easing policies would remain,” said BI senior deputy governor Destry Damayanty in a recent interview with The Jakarta Post. “We can also [further] lower our rate as there’s still room.”

From the United States to Asian countries, central banks have been slashing their monetary policy rates in recent months to stoke domestic economic growth in the face of what could well turn out to be a global recession stemming from trade tensions around the world.

BI has lowered its policy rate, the seven-day reverse repo rate, by 50 basis points (bps) in the past two months to 5.5 percent. BI Governor Perry Warjiyo said after BI’s monthly policy meeting in Aug. 22 that the move was a preemptive decision to encourage the domestic economy amid a potential global slowdown.

“But does policy easing always involve cutting interest rates? Not necessarily, because we have our policy mix,” said Destry, an economist by trade and commission member of the Insurance Deposit Corporation (LPS) who was the chief economist of state-run Bank Mandiri and Mandiri Sekuritas for 10 years.

Nonmonetary tools such as the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio will be reviewed, with BI recently hinting at a relaxation of the LTV and down payment requirements for “green financing”.

Destry declined to elaborate on the plan, saying that studies were still underway to formulate a relaxation policy.

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