Indonesia: no plans to limit ownership of govt debt

JAKARTA, Nov 18 - Indonesia's government has no plan to limit foreign ownership of government debt, a senior official at the finance ministry said on Wednesday.

The comments came after a deputy central bank governor said that the bank was studying the possibility of limiting foreign ownership in its short-term debt paper, known as SBI, to curb hot money flows. [ID:nJAK502158]

"We have no plan . In the past foreign ownership reached 20 percent. Currently it is around 17.7 percent. We have no limit...The current level is normal," Bhimantara Widyajala, a director at the finance ministry, told Reuters.

The finance ministry has already met its gross issuance target of 144.5 trillion rupiah this year and said had no plan to hold further sales.

Several analysts said that the government should be able to meet next year's net issuance target although would continue to rely on foreign investment.

Indonesia's net issuance target was estimated to be 104.4 trillion rupiah next year, up from 102.1 trillion rupiah in 2009. (Reporting by Sonya Angraini; Writing by Andreas Ismar; Editing by Ed Davies)