JAKARTA: Bank Indonesia blamed a swearing-in ceremony at the nation’s financial regulator for the delay of its interest-rate announcement to close to midnight in Jakarta on Thursday.
The timing of the decision left analysts puzzled and spurred speculation the central bank might have been waiting for European Central Bank president Mario Draghi’s monetary policy press conference that came hours beforehand. The Indonesian authority held its benchmark rate at 4.75%, as predicted by all 19 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. It last cut the rate in October.