Monday Evening Sees Rate at Rp12,202 per US Dollar
6 October 2014 18:06 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Rupiah's interbank exchange rate in Jakarta on Monday evening weakened by 25 points to close at Rp12,202 per United States (US) Dollar - down from its previous position of Rp12,177 per US Dollar.
An analyst for Platon Niaga Berjangka, Lukman Leong, said in Jakarta on Monday, October 6, 2014 that the combination of global and domestic negative sentiments are pushing the Rupiah into the red zone -- exceeding the Rp12,200 per US Dollar mark.
"That said, the Rupiah's downtrend is considered as normal, as it is in line with the experience of other developing market currencies, which generally decline as positive sentiments generated by a possible Fed rate hike in the US, which may happen a lot sooner than expected," said Lukman.
According to Lukman, the domestic political circumstances have a bigger impact on Rupiah's exchange rate - especially with the fight for the Chairmanship of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) raging on at the moment. "We hope that the political situation would resolve itself soon, as to not affect the rupiah too much," he said.
That said, Lukman gave some credits to Bank Indonesia (BI), which has consistently managed to defend the value of the Rupiah and limit the negative consequences of the continuously gaining US Dollar.
An analyst for Mandiri Sekuritas, Leo Rinaldy, said in a review that current conditions has allowed BI to increase its foreign exchange reserves - Indonesia's central bank authority has received a total of US$3 billion as per September 30, 2014.
"Based on our estimates, 40 percent of Indonesia's added foreign exchange reserves comes from foreign currencies acquisitions by BI. A healthy foreign exchange reserves are important as they protect Indonesia from future economic shocks, both internally or externally," said Leo.
Meanwhile, BI's middle rate as of Monday, October 6, 2014, slipped to Rp12,212 per US Dollar - down from its previous position of Rp12,144 per US Dollar.
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