The Indonesian foreign exchange reserves have risen significantly over the last three weeks to set a new record, getting very close to the full year target of 51 billion US dollars, a central bank official said Friday.

The international reserves were recorded at 49.4 billion dollars this week against 47.2 billion in the end of March, Bank Indonesia deputy governor Aslim Tadjuddin told reporters here.

This is good for the economy, he said without making clear the major source of the increase.

The current figure has set a new benchmark compared with the reserves prior to the 1997 financial crisis that stood at a mere 15 billion to 16 billion dollars.

Source: Xinhua