Bank Indonesia Will Purchase Sukuk to Help Stabilize Bond Market

Indonesia’s central bank will buy Islamic government debt to help prevent volatility in the bond market and to increase Shariah-compliant financial instruments, Bank Indonesia said in a statement on its website.

“It’s important to improve the Shariah market, also for building stock for us,” Hendar, director of monetary policy at the central bank, said in a mobile-phone text message today.

Bank Indonesia purchased government bonds in the secondary market to help stabilize the rupiah and bond markets simultaneously, while also increasing the supply of government bonds in the central bank’s portfolio, Governor Darmin Nasution said Feb. 10.

The nation’s currency gained 0.5 percent to 9,046 per dollar as of 4:58 p.m. in Jakarta, according to prices from local banks compiled by Bloomberg. Bank Indonesia held around 70 trillion rupiah of government bonds, Nasution said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Novrida Manurung in Jakarta at nmanurung@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Greg Ahlstrand at gahlstrand@bloomberg.net