Jakarta, June 9 -- Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Perry Warjiyo said the central bank was reluctant to raise its benchmark interest rate (BI-Rate), but has done so to attract foreign portfolio investment inflows into the country.

On Tuesday, through its weekly Board of Governors Meeting (RDG), BI decided to raise the BI-Rate by 25 basis points (bps) to 5.5 percent.

"Today we raised it again to 5.5 percent. We do not like raising interest rates, but (did so) to attract foreign portfolio investment," he said during a working meeting with the House of Representatives' Budget Committee here on Tuesday.

BI recently raised the BI-Rate by 50 bps at its monthly RDG on May 19-20.

The increase marked the first adjustment after the benchmark rate ...