REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Finance Minister Sri Mulyani strongly denied suggestion that the government is hosting the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group hoping for new loans. The allegation is entirely unfounded, she said.

Sri Mulyani asserted that the IMF would not give assistance to countries not facing by crisis. "The IMF is mandated to give assistance only to country hit by crisis and assistance is given if asked the country," she said in a statement received here on Monday.

She went on to explain the IMF functions like a cooperative providing temporary loan to prop up the economy of its members. She reiterated that Indonesia is not facing crisis.

"Our banking industry is healthy. Our GDP still grows 5 percent, state budget deficit narrowing, inflation low and the monetary is stable. We are confident if our economic flexibility could be maintained, we would be able to adjust ourselves to the present global economic developments," she said.

Also read: Hosting IMF-WB Meeting, Indonesia is not seeking for a loan

The week long IMF-WB 2018 meeting opened on Monday in Nusa Dua, Bali, is the world's largest economic meeting with participants comprising IMF and Wold Bank delegates, finance ministers and central bank leaders from 189 countries and other invitees including observers, business leaders and journalists.

Indonesia is the 4th Asian countries ever hosting the IMF-WB annual meetings after Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines. The Nusa Dua meeting was said to be the biggest IMF-WB annual event in term of participants.

The Nusa Dua meeting is expected to be attended by around 30,000 participants including 5,000 delegates and 25,000 other participants.

The Indonesian Government estimated that the meeting costs around Rp850 billion but Indonesia is expected to earn more than the cost although not directly.

Bappenas said the direct income is expected from the spending by the participants estimated to reach more than Rp1 trillion and indirect gain is the impact on the country's tourism.

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