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Rupiah weakens to 13,988 per dollar on Monday afternoon
The rupiah exchange rate on Monday afternoon weakened by 47 points to Rp 13,988 per US dollar from its previous position at Rp 13,941
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The rupiah exchange rate on Monday afternoon weakened by 47 points to Rp 13,988 per US dollar from its previous position at Rp 13,941.
'The rupiah exchange rate experienced pressure against the US dollar again. External sentiments remained the main factor influencing [...] the pressure,' Bank Himpunan Saudara financial market analyst Rully Nova said as quoted by Antara in Jakarta on Monday
The analyst said Indonesia's main export destinations, including China, which had not yet shown improved conditions, had led the country's economic fundamentals to slow down. In this situation, financial market players tended to release their rupiah currency, which was considered risky, and buy the US dollar.
On the other side, Rully said, ongoing uncertainties from the US Federal Reserve (Fed) over its fund rate hike policy had also added negative sentiments to developing countries' currencies, including the rupiah. It was hoped that the Fed could immediately decide its policy so it could muffle uncertainties in foreign currency markets in developing countries.
Rully said Bank Indonesia's (BI) interventions, one of which was buying treasury notes in the secondary market, were helpful in holding back the rupiah exchange rate from depreciating further.
'BI has been quite active to safeguard the fluctuation of the rupiah, hopefully the pressure on the rupiah will not be greater than the pressure on currencies in other Asian regions,' said the analyst.
Rully said the financial market players expected that there would be infrastructure spending acceleration because an improved infrastructure sector would push Indonesia's economic fundamentals to improve and this eventually could support the rupiah exchange rate.
BI's median rate recorded that the rupiah exchange rate weakened to Rp 13,998 per US dollar on Monday from Rp 13,895 in the previous day. (ebf)
