Posted on 17 Jul 2008
"I have reported to the president that our economy has
begun improving. At the beginning the effect of the fuel price rise gave our
economy a slight fever, but we have overcome this," Boediono was quoted by
AFP as telling reporters.
He said after a meeting with President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono that foreign exchange reserves were at a healthy 59.6 billion dollars
and inflation had "become normal again" following a jump from the
fuel hike.
Consumer prices likely peaked last month and would start
easing by the end of the year.
The central bank raised its key interest rate by 25 basis
points on July 3 to rein in an inflationary surge springing from the 30-percent
average hike in fuel prices in May.
The third rise in three months took the benchmark rate to 8.75
percent and came as surging prices across
Boediono has said he expects inflation to range between 11.5
and 12.5 percent by year's end, before easing off to between 6.5 and 7.5
percent by the end of 2009. Inflation was running at 11.03 percent in June.
The finance ministry said
Privatization of state firms
State-owned enterprises minister Sofyan Djalil said
parliament would approve plans to privatise companies such as PT Krakatau Steel
and units of plantation firm PT Perkebunan Nusantara next month.
He said the companies would be able to hold initial public
offerings later this year.
"I hope approval can be obtained from parliament in
August and that the government can quickly conduct the privatisation of several
state-owned firms, such as Krakatau Steel," he told reporters.
Krakatau Steel chief executive Fazwar Bujang said his
company aimed to offer 20 to 40 percent of its shares in October to raise up to
five trillion rupiah (555 million dollars).
"Foreign investors will be prioritised because of the
keen interest they expressed during pre-marketing (for the IPO) early last
month in
Foreign interest in
