Eid Holiday Turnover Helpless Against US Dollar As Rupiah Continues to Plunge: Analyst
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17 April 2024 12:56 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The rupiah exchange rate against the US dollar opened lower on Wednesday, impacted by the rising US Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation data for March 2024.
In early Wednesday morning trade, the rupiah slipped 76 points or 0.47 percent to Rp16,252 per US dollar from the previous Rp16,176 per US dollar.
"This happened because of several releases of important American fundamental figures that supported the strength of the US dollar, the month-on-month Consumer Price Index inflation rate rose to 0.4 percent from an estimated 0.3 percent," Finex analyst Brahmantya Himawan told Antara in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Brahmantya said the rupiah is currently burdened and plunged into more than Rp16,000. According to him, even the significant economic turnover during Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr is helpless to stem the impact of the US dollar over the rupiah.
The year-over-year US CPI figure in March 2024 also rose to 3.5 percent from the previous period's 3.2 percent.
The figure indicates that the inflation target of the US central bank or the Fed is still ways off so US policy rate cuts are potentially not happening anytime soon. Fed Chairman Jerome Powel said that he needs to be fully confident that inflation is on track to “come down to 2 percent”.
In addition, US retail sales figures increased to 0.7 percent, well above the initial 0.4 percent estimation, strengthening the US dollar against the rupiah.
Concerning geopolitical matters, Iran attacking Israel made traders turn their eyes to safe haven currency assets, namely the US dollar.
"Currently, the upward trend of the US dollar is still clearly visible so the rupiah has the potential to depreciate further," he said, estimating the rupiah to move in the range of Rp15,850 per US dollar to Rp16,250 per US dollar.
ANTARA
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