JAKARTA, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's Former Vice President Jusuf Kalla said on Thursday that the global financial crisis posed little effect on the country last year, contrary with opinion of the current government.

    Before the parliamentary Special Committee on Banking Bailout Case of Bank Century, worth 6.7 trillion rupiah (670 million U.S. dollars), Kalla said that Indonesia was indeed affected by the crisis, but the impact was not as big as many officials expected.

    "The effect of the global financial crisis was at decreasing demand from developed countries that impacted our exports and capital market as most investors were foreigners," he said.

    According to Kalla, the hot money flew out of Indonesia because it was pulled to their original countries to fix problems there.

    "In short, our economy was not affected much. Inflation and unemployment were at normal level. Indeed, rupiah depreciated only20 percent, much better than in the 1997/1998 crisis when the depreciation touched 600 percent," he said.

    Previously, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Vice President Boediono said the global crisis much affected the country, triggering weakened trust to banking sector and forcing the government to prevent it from getting worse, including the bailout of Bank Century.

    Critics said that the bailout policy posed loss for the country's finance.

    However, Sri Mulyani said the country did not lose the money as the bank still exists with its new name of Bank Mutiara.

Special Report:  Global Financial Crisis