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Indonesia Wins Moody's Upgrade Months After Fitch Move

Moody's Upgrades Indonesia to Baa2 on Positive Economic Outlook

(Bloomberg) -- Indonesia won a sovereign rating upgrade from Moody’s Investors Service, months after Fitch Rating increased its own score, as the nation improves its resilience to global shocks.

The rating on the nation’s long-term, foreign currency-denominated debt was raised one level to Baa2 with a stable outlook, Moody’s said in a statement on Friday. The upgrade brings Moody’s in line with the assessment of Fitch and puts Indonesia on par with the Philippines and India.

Indonesia’s improving resilience and capacity to respond to shocks are among the key rating drivers, Moody’s said. The upgrade would boost President Joko Widodo’s efforts to finance hundreds of billions of dollars of infrastructure to fire up the economy ahead of a presidential election next year.

"This is a near-term positive for markets and a strong validation to Indonesia’s improving fundamentals, putting it in a good position to weather recent external storms," said Euben Paracuelles, an economist at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Singapore.

Benchmark 10-year bond yields were down three basis points. The rupiah rose 0.1 percent to 13,758 per dollar as of 9:19 a.m. on Friday while Indonesia’s benchmark equity index was little changed after gaining as much as 0.4 percent.

Southeast Asia’s biggest economy has been growing at about 5 percent and is expected to pick up pace this year, but is still well short of the 7 percent targeted by Widodo, known as Jokowi.

Controlled Deficits

The government’s adherence to its legally mandated budget deficit cap at 3 percent of gross domestic product and the central bank’s track record of prioritizing macroeconomic stability over promoting short-term growth are among the rating drivers, Moody’s said.

The government plans to narrow the fiscal deficit to below 2 percent of GDP next year from the 2.19 percent targeted in the 2018 budget.

Indonesia Wins Moody's Upgrade Months After Fitch Move

"The acknowledgment is a great achievement on the back of ongoing global economic uncertainty affecting economic development in the region," Bank Indonesia Governor Agus Martowardojo said in a statement. The central bank would continue to monitor global risks and optimize its policy mix, he said.

Bank Indonesia has succeeded in bringing down inflation to less than 4 percent, giving policy makers room to hold interest rates since October. Foreign reserves were at $126 billion in March after reaching a record $132 billion in January.

“While the upgrade helps support the rupiah and other assets, it won’t be enough to drastically change the trend as the nation has already won investment grades from the three major agencies”, said Teppei Ino, an analyst at MUFG Bank Ltd. in Singapore. The impact would be bigger if Indonesia was raised to A grade while the current-account balance is a more significant factor for the currency, he said.

--With assistance from Yumi Teso

To contact the reporters on this story: Rieka Rahadiana in Jakarta at rrahadiana@bloomberg.net, Karlis Salna in Jakarta at ksalna@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Niluksi Koswanage at nkoswanage@bloomberg.net, Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net, Karl Lester M. Yap, Thomas Kutty Abraham

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