Indonesia’s government may issue more sovereign bonds than targeted this year. The budget deficit is forecast to increase to 2.5% of GDP. “The government has room to issue more bonds to finance the deficit.”, according to Suahasil Nazara. The net bond issuance target is set at 389.32 trillion rupiah ($26.34 billion) in 2020, with 14%-18%to come from foreign-denominated securities. (Bloomberg) The Fed cut interest rates to essentially zero on Sunday and launched a massive $700 billion quantitative easing program to shelter the economy from the effects of the virus. The new fed funds rate will now be targeted at 0% - 0.25% down from a previous target range of 1% - 1.25%. Facing highly disrupted financial markets, the Fed also slashed the rate of emergency lending at the discount window for banks by 125bps to 0.25% and lengthened the term of loans to 90 days. (CNBC) In coordinated statements on Sunday, the Fed, BOJ, ECB, Swiss National Bank, Bank of Canada and BOE said they would use swap lines to support the international supply of the world’s reserve currency. Meanwhile, Asian central banks moved aggressively to counter the market carnage on Friday. The People’s BOC injected $79 billion into the economy through a reduction in reserve ratios for banks. The BOK is considering a special meeting to tackle wild swings in the foreign exchange market, and Japan offered to provide as much as 2.2 trillion yen ($20.8 billion) of liquidity in three different operations. (Bloomberg) Source: Danareksa Sekuritas Debt Research Photo by Aditya Indrajaya