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External pressures to continue into 2019: Sri Mulyani
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A clerk counts rupiah notes on March 14 at a Jakarta money changer. (Antara/Sigid Kurniawan)
F
inance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has said that external pressures on the Indonesian economy would likely continue into the coming year on the back of the strengthening US dollar and economy.
The minister was commenting on the rupiah's continuing depreciation, which has left the currency hovering above Rp 15,000 per US dollar in the past few days.
The Jakarta Interbank Spot Dollar Rate (JISDOR) quoted the rupiah at 15,233 per US dollar on Tuesday, or 0.26 percent lower than its position on Monday.
Sri Mulyani said the US dollar would continue to strengthen, as the US Federal Reserve was still expected to increase its rate once more this year and twice or three times next year.
“It means that we will see [the US dollar] strengthen [further],” she said in Bali on Monday as quoted by tribunnews.com.
Sri Mulyani also said that the improvement in the US economy was also supported by data on a strong increase in the 10-year US Treasury yield, which stood at 3.4 percent on Monday.
“So the [rupiah-dollar] equilibrium has not been reached. The increase [in the US dollar] will continue into next year,” she said, adding that Bank Indonesia and the government would continue to implement a fiscal-monetary policy mix.
“So the government and BI will implement a policy mix in accordance with our respective domains to manage the exchange rate,” Sri Mulyani said. (bbn)
