Rupiah Perches Near 13,500/US$

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - New home sales data from the United States that dropped to 482,000 units caused the greenback to move sideways during yesterday's trade. The dollar also weakened over the lack of significant repairs in the US economic data, which builds speculations that The Federal Reserve will postpone raising interest rates to 2016.

The greenback weakened 0.41 percent over the Japanese yen and lost 0.40 percent over the New Zealand dollar. Meanwhile, the greenback gave the rupiah a 15.5 point (0.12 percent) downturn to Rp13,462.5.

Monex Investindo Futures analyst Yulia Safrina said the greenback's slight decline is due to the euro's rebound to 1.1068 per US dollar. "The euro gain temporarily sidetracked investors' demand over the US dollar," she said.

Yulia said the dollar will remain strong with a tendency to strengthen further with speculations over the Fed Rate hike plan.

"Janet Yellen's statement before the congress some time ago—confirming that the Fed Rate will be raised this year—becomes investors' main reason to accumulate the dollar," she said.

The rupiah is predicted to remain under pressure, moving between Rp13,450 and Rp13,550 per US dollar.

The currency receives additional negative sentiments from a Indonesia's weakening economy recently. "Pessimisms over the domestic economy ad BI's growth target cut to 5.2 percent caused investors' demand on the rupiah to decline further," Yulia said.

PDAT | MEGEL JEKSON