That is mainly a benefit of the devalued rupiah -- tin is quoted in dollars.
Still, Indonesia's second Fund deal signed in January was criticized for largely ignoring the most pressing problems of rupiah free-fall and crushing foreign debt, which by then were dragging down banks and firms.
Siti earns 3, 000 rupiah a day -- 27 cents -- for herself and a daughter.
The drastic restructuring he sought -- reducing the bloated staff levels, flattening the hierarchy and offloading welfare programs that were soaking up billions of rupiah each year-- was bound to be resisted.
"I wish to inform the nation that the president had suffered a stroke, " Zambian Vice-President Rupiah Banda said in a statement.
The president has yet to accomplish much - the rupiah has weakened 11% since he took charge and foreign investors have yet to rush in.
While the January package referred vaguely to "strengthening the legal and supervisory framework for banking, " the new deal sets minimum capital of 250 billion rupiah and makes loan-loss provisions tax-deductible.
One has only to look at the stabilisation of the rupiah and the re-entry of foreign and domestic capital investment into Indonesia to get an idea of the revitalisation taking place.
"His Excellency... is recovering satisfactorily, " said Vice-President Rupiah Banda.
Its special prosecutors can investigate any suspected misconduct involving government officials believed to have cost the state more than 1 billion rupiah, and have wide-ranging powers.
Those loans are impossible to repay given the rupiah's volatile swings - the currency was trading at 11, 500 to the U.S. dollar June 3 (versus 2, 400 to the greenback in July last year).
The situation is even worse in Indonesia, where the rupiah has lost more than three-quarters of its value against the dollar over the past six months.
This type of property can start as low as 280 million Indonesian rupiah, and is usually a long-term leasehold, up to 70 years in some cases.
In the 1997-98 Asian crisis, Indonesia's rupiah dropped by over 75% before gradually creeping back.
The rupiah value of those IOUs are up more than three-fold since July, wiping out the assets of most debtors and rendering them technically bankrupt.
Initiatives such as Malaysia's proposal to use ASEAN currencies in bilateral trade and aid from the G-7 industrial countries to prop up the rupiah may help.
To alleviate a spare-parts shortage that is slowly crippling transportation, the company of the president's second son Bambang Trihatmodjo recently got permission to import parts at a state-subsidized exchange rate of 5, 000 rupiah to the greenback.
When Suharto's currency- board notion was publicized, Indonesia's rupiah was trading at 9, 500 to the dollar, having dropped 80% since last July.
The solution the president favours is fixing the value of the rupiah to the dollar at a rate of 5, 000-5, 500 by means of a currency board, as in Hong Kong or Argentina.
Recent Zambian elections teetered on a knife-edge when the opposition won there, before President Rupiah Banda gracefully accepted defeat rather than cry foul.
The rupiah jumped 28% to 7, 600 to the dollar after Suharto's comments -- where it remained after Mar'ie's parliamentary appearance.
Syaukani, the regent, as the head of a regency is known, explains that Kutai's budget has risen from 400 billion rupiah to 2 trillion since the autonomy law took effect, even as it lost two-thirds of its population to other regencies.
Japanese PM Hashimoto Ryutaro recently met Suharto -- the first leader from a big economic power to visit the president since the rupiah's collapse.
The government is now likely to spend as much as 100 trillion rupiah on the subsidies or twice as much as it has budgeted to rebuild the tsunami-stricken province of Aceh.
On September 3rd the government said it would postpone public-works projects not deemed to be urgent, a step which should help stabilise the rupiah, but which is likely to slow the economy.
Although the currency has appreciated since mid-March, renewed weakness is possible, and the effect of a collapse in the value of the rupiah (not our central forecast) would be to lower the spending power of most Indonesians.
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