Indonesia revises budget in line with IMF agreement

Indonesia has announced a revised budget in line with targets agreed last week with the International Monetary Fund, in response to the continuing economic crisis.

In a televised speech to parliament the Finance Minister, Mar'ie Muhammad, said the changes were to make the budget more realistic.

Indonesia's currency and stock markets collapsed after President Suharto's original budget earlier this month.

The revised version includes cuts in fuel subsidies and predicts zero economic growth and an inflation rate of twenty per cent.

But the BBC correspondent in Jakarta says the official prediction of a currency exchange rate of five thousand rupiah to the dollar is hopelessly unrealistic.

He says the budget is unlikely to do much to reverse the collapse in business confidence.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service