(Adds details of c.bank chief nomination process, economist
comments)
By Ananda Teresia and Stefanno Sulaiman
JAKARTA, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Indonesian President Joko
Widodo said he would decide later on Tuesday or on Wednesday the
candidates he intended to nominate to parliament to be the
governor of the central bank after the current chief's term ends
in May.
The president is expected to provide his nominations to
parliament this month so that lawmakers can conduct a
"fit-and-proper test" and select a new governor for Bank
Indonesia (BI) before the incumbent, Perry Warjiyo, finishes his
first five-year term.
"We will decide today or tomorrow," Jokowi, as the president
is popularly known, said, according to a transcript of his
statement shared by his office.
Sources told Reuters last month that Jokowi was considering
nominating Warjiyo for a second term as well as looking at
several other candidates for the job, including his Finance
Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Deputy Central Bank Governor
Destry Damayanti and the head of the Indonesia Deposit Insurance
Corporation Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa.
By law, the president has until the end of this week to
submit at most three names and parliament must decide their pick
or reject the candidates within a month afterwards.
In the past few instances, including when Jokowi
nominated Warjiyo in 2018, only one name was submitted to
lawmakers and rarely has an incumbent governor been nominated
for a second term.
BI last week
kept
its benchmark rate unchanged, after six consecutive rate
hikes totalling 225 basis points aimed at fighting above-target
inflation.
At a news conference after its policy meeting, Warjiyo
said he saw no need for further rate hikes due to inflation
easing quicker than initially estimated. BI would use other
tools to maintain rupiah stability amid expectations of further
U.S. monetary tightening, he said.
BI's policy direction is expected to remain
data-dependent regardless of potential leadership change, said
David Sumual, an economist with one of Indonesia's biggest
lenders Bank Central Asia.
"It's not about one individual, (Warjiyo's) view, but
institutionally (BI) has said rate hikes have been sufficient,
subject to future developments," he said, adding that his bank
expected the benchmark to either stay at the current rate of
5.75% or be lifted to 6% by year-end.
(Reporting by Ananda Teresia and Stefanno Sulaiman; Writing by
Gayatri Suroyo;
Editing by Ed Davies, Kanupriya Kapoor)
