Reza Siregar

Reza Siregar is Senior Lecturer and Postgraduate Coordinator (Applied Masters) at the School of Economics, University of Adelaide. Since October 2004, he has been appointed as Director of Centre for International Economic Studies, the Adelaide University. Reza hold his PhD and MA degrees in economics from Brown University, Rhode island, USA in 1994. He also was awarded Cum Laude for his bachelor degree in economics & mathematics from Boston University, USA. His Ph.D dissertation is looking at the fundamental determinants of the fluctuations of the Indonesian rupiah real exchange rate. He applied the NATural Real Exchange rate (NATREX) model to analyse Singapore dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Thai bath, the Philippine peso and the Korean Won.

He serves as Member of Executive Committee at the School of Economics, University of Adelaide, Australia, since January 2005. His academic dedication includes as Associate Editor of Singapore Economic Review, and Council Fellow of the East Asian Economic Association. His previous full and visiting positions are as Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, National University of Singapore (May 1999 - May 2002), as Economist at the Economic Development & Resource Center, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Manila, Philippines (June-1997 - February 1999) and as Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore (April 1994 - April 1996). n addition, he was a visiting scholar at the Center for Pacific Basin Monetary and Economic Studies at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (USA) and at the Dept of Economics, University of Maryland at College Park (USA). In the second semester of 2005, he will have a 6-month study leave where he will spend sometimes at the Centre for Central Bank Studies at Bank Indonesia in Jakarta, and the Asia Pacific Division of the International Monetary Fund in Washignton, D.C. His detail can be viewed from http://www.economics.adelaide.edu.au/staff/siregar/.

Selected Monetary Policy Challenges in the Midst of High Debt Financing In Indonesia

Prudent macroeconomic policy managements have been recognized as an instrumental factor in explaining rapid economic growths in Indonesia during the pre-1997 financial crisis period. The same basic pre-condition is required if Indonesia hopes to achieve sustainable economic growths in the future. Unquestionably, effective monetary policy is an indispensable feature of sound macroeconomics policies for Indonesia. With the country's high external debt level and facing its own on-going reform and restructuring, the challenge for Bank Indonesia is going to be very complex. This paper hopes to lay out a number of these challenges.