AT long last Bank Indonesia raised its benchmark interest rate on Friday a fortnight ago. After keeping it unchanged at 6.5 percent for 18 months, the central bank raised the rate by 25 basis points to 6.75 percent. “It’s time the interest rate be raised because of mounting inflationary pressure,” Bank Indonesia Governor Darmin Nasution said in a special interview with Tempo at his office on Thursday last week.

Within only a few minutes of