A Bank at War
Bank Indonesia and the government are at odds over a string of unrecovered central bank loans handed out at the height of Indonesia’s economic collapse. Could the issue be a means for President Abdurrahman Wahid’s government to end BI’s independence?
October 9, 2000
They call them Bank Indonesia Liquidity Credits—BLBI for short. Through them trillions of rupiah in public money were leaked to banks as Indonesia plunged into economic ruin in 1997 and 1998. Getting the money back has not been easy. And no one wants to shoulder the blame.
A public slanging match has gone on for months between the government and the central bank over the issue, part of a wider war between the two institutions. At the same
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