The central banks of China and Indonesia signed a bilateral swap arrangement (BSA), doubling the previous US$1 billion swap ceiling, People's Bank of China (PBC) said Monday.

The previous BSA, concluded in 2003 under the Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI) and approved by the ASEAN plus 3 Finance Ministers in 2000, aimed at helping members solving the problems of international balance payments and stabilizing financial markets after the 1997 financial crisis in Asia.

The new BSA illustrated the measures agreed on by the ASEAN plus 3 Finance Ministers to enhance the effectiveness of CMI in May 2005, the PBC said.

It included doubling the BSA scale, integrating economic surveillance with the CMI and increasing the size of swaps that could be withdrawn without the IMF-supported program from 10 percent to 20 percent, it said.

Zhou Xiaochuan and Burhanuddin Abdullah, governors of PBC and Bank of Indonesia, signed the pact and expected this arrangement to make great contributions to financial stability and economic growth in East Asia, according to the joint press release.

(Xinhua News Agency October 18, 2005)