With the rupiah remaining weak amid ongoing external pressures, Indonesian businesses have agreed to bring more of their export proceeds home in a cautious move to maintain the country’s economic stability.

Business lobby group the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) held a closed meeting with the government’s top economic officials in Jakarta on Wednesday to discuss efforts to encourage the repatriation of export proceeds so as to alleviate the pressures on the rupiah.

The meeting was attended by Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Perry Warjiyo, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Deputy Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Archandra Tahar and Financial Services Authority (OJK) chairman Wimboh Santoso, among others.

Speaking after the meeting, Kadin chairman Rosan P. Roeslani said business players were committed to increasing the repatriation of export proceeds, most of which were currently placed in offshore banks.

“We understand that we also stand to lose if the depreciation of the currency continues,” said Rosan. “We all want stability; that is why we will try to bring 100 percent of our export proceeds [home].”

According to BI data, only 80 percent to 81 percent of business export proceeds are brought back to the country. Of the repatriated proceeds, only 15 percent is converted to rupiah.

Rosan said business players were asked to convert more of their export proceeds to rupiah, so that the portion of converted repatriated proceeds could increase to around 40 to 50 percent.

The rupiah traded at Rp 14,621 per US dollar on Wednesday, slightly stronger than Rp 14,625 seen a day earlier. The currency has weakened by 7.04 percent year-to-date, according to BI data.

Rosan also lauded BI’s move to create more foreign exchange swap options with longer tenors, which would encourage the repatriation of funds as business players might feel there was more certainty in terms of costs.

Also on Wednesday, Perry said BI had two foreign exchange swap instruments operated on a daily basis, namely foreign exchange swaps for monetary operations and foreign exchange swaps for currency hedging.

Perry claimed that the optimization of BI’s foreign exchange swaps had reduced the swap rate in the market, citing data that showed the rate for foreign exchange swaps with a one-month maturity date had declined to 4.62 percent from 4.85 percent. Meanwhile, the rate for foreign exchange swaps with a one-year maturity date had declined to 4.96 percent from 5.18 percent, Perry said.

After the meeting with Kadin, Sri Mulyani said the government had issued Finance Ministerial Regulation (PMK) No. 26/2016 on income tax cuts for deposit and savings interest as well as discounts for BI certificates (SBI), all of which were incentives for exporters that repatriated their funds. She said the government would assess whether there were difficulties in terms of implementation.

After holding a two-day board of governors meeting, BI on Wednesday decided to raise its policy rate — the seven-day reverse repo rate — by 25 basis points (bps) to 5.5 percent. It was the fourth time it has done so this year as it attempts to maintain the competitiveness of the domestic financial market and narrow the current account deficit.

BI also increased its deposit facility and lending facility rates by the same amount to 4.75 percent and 6.75 percent, respectively.

The country’s current account deficit swelled to US$8 billion in the second quarter of the year, up from $5.7 billion in the previous quarter. The latest figure was equal to 3 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

Bahana Sekuritas economists Satria Sambijantoro and Ananka said BI’s tightening move was an “insurance” policy against further threats of capital outflows amid global sell-offs triggered by Turkey’s economic turmoil.

“We view this policy as more of a signal to cement policy credibility — that BI is ready to implement orthodox economic policy actions and take necessary measures when required — rather than an admission of deteriorating economic fundamentals,” they wrote in a research note.