BI says global crisis not over yet

Bank Indonesia (BI) has reminded that the global crisis is not over yet and any time the impacts could hit the economy of any country, including Indonesia. BI Governor Boediono made the statement when speaking in a workshop on "The Empowerment of Regional Development Banks (BPD) in order to Accelerate the Regional Development" here on Thursday.

"It`s like being hit by a series of earthquakes, one earthquake is not over yet, another follows. The quake`s epicenter is located in the United States, and its impacts affect all over the world," Boediono said in the meeting organized by the Association of Regional Development Banks (Asbanda) and the Association of Provincial Administrations throughout Indonesia.

The most important agenda in 2009 after the General Elections, is how to take the Indonesian economy pass the difficult time amidst the impacts of the current global economic crisis, said the governor of the country`s central bank.

He said that the national economic condition at present was relatively better than that of other countries, or 11-12 years ago.

"However, like an earthquake which is difficult to predict, the global crisis which probably affects the national economy, is also hard to predict. What we could do is to safeguard our home so that it could be quake-proof," he said.

He reminded that efforts to curb the impacts of the global economic crisis could not be done by only one or two institutions.

"Every time there is a financial crisis, BI is always in the front, but BI could not deal with it alone, and therefore cooperation among institutions needs to be intensified," he said.

The BI governor said that efforts to curb and anticipate the impacts of the crisis needed abnormal or unconventional measures to deal with the emergency condition.

"Those abnormal steps need a strong legal basis, and in advanced countries, too, there is a legal basis for decision making in emergency condition," Boediono said.