Indonesia does not need to tap the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for its short-term lending facility, since the country's debt was low, Minister of State for National Development Planning Paskah Suzetta said on Thursday.

The minister said that currently the ratio of Indonesia's debt to gross domestic product was below 30 percent. "So we do not need to use the IMF facility," he told reporters at Mulia Hotel.

The IMF last month introduced a short-term lending facility to help countries to tide over temporary liquidity shortage.

Recently, the rupiah dropped sharply to nearly 12,000 rupiah against US$1, which leads the country's central bank to intervene so as to boost the falling currency. As a result, the state reserve declined to a 17-month low of US$50.8 billion at the end of October, down from US$57.10 billion at the end of September.

The minister said that the problem facing the country now was how to maintain the current level of state budget deficit. "What we can do is to issue bonds," he said.

Indonesia expects its economy to accelerate at a slower pace next year between 5.5 - 6.1 percent following the global economic crisis. It also expects the deficit at 1.3 percent of the GDP and rupiah's value against the dollar to reach 9,500.

Indonesian government on Wednesday bought back its debts worth at US$29.5 billion to stabilize the bond prices.

The biggest Southeast Asia economy paid back all its loan to the IMF in 2005, four years ahead of schedule.

(Xinhua News Agency November 13, 2008)