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strong>June 11, p1

A massive sell-off in stocks and bonds by foreign investors, on the back of concern over fiscal management, dragged the rupiah down through the psychological barrier of 10,000 per US dollar on Monday.

Investors desperately off loaded rupiah assets on additional fears of dollar shortages in the local market.

The dollar traded at Rp 10,087 at 16:30, down by 2 percent from 9.886 on Friday, according to Bloomberg, while Reuters cited the currency at Rp 10,105.

Your comments:

Unless the state can lower the nation's debt, any argument about the rupiah's value is a waste of time. In recent news, to support the rupiah's value, Bank Indonesia (BI) governor Agus Martowardodjo unloaded US$2.2 billion in May 2013 of foreign exchange reserves.

The $2.2 billion out of the reserves of $107.2 billion means about 2 percent of reserves in one month. And it was business as usual in May 2013, no rush for US dollars.

In my opinion, since the intervention by BI is of no use, we might as well let the market determine the real value of the rupiah. There would be a social and political cost, but it is for the betterment of the nation.

H Cahyadi