Rupiah Weak, Indef Doubts Jokowi's Economic Policy  

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Enny Sri Hartati, director of the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef), said that President Joko Widodo's economic policy package has had little to no effect on Indonesia's declining economy, as proven by Rupiah's exchange rate that continues to weaken against the US dollar.

"The public is not responding positively to his policy," Enny said on Friday, September 11.

Enny said that moments before the policy package was announced on Wednesday, September 9, the Rupiah was traded for Rp. 14,244 per US dollar. On the next day, the rupiah ironically dropped to Rp. 14,322 per US dollar.

"The people feel stagnation over the policy yesterday, thinking that the government is not serious in recovering the domestic economy," she said.

Enny hopes the government will take concrete measures to solve the economic problems so that the rupiah could rebound. She said that the Rupiah's position plays a very influential for economic development in Indonesia.

"The people's purchasing power is so low now because prices are not stable due to the weakening of the Rupiah," she said.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) chairman Haryadi Sukamdani is hoping that the details of Jokowi's deregulation policy will be announced soon. According to Haryadi, the economic policy package announced earlier this week was too general.

"The policy announced was too general, we cannot speculate about it," he said on Friday, September 11.

Haryadi said that some of the reasons causing the rupiah to weaken against the greenback include insignificant export activities and a high demand for the US dollar to pay an increasing debt.

He believes it would take some time before the economic policy to have any impact on the current situation. "We cannot see the results immediately," he said.

Haryadi said that Apindo will wait to see if the policy will be productive or counter-productive to the Indonesian economy.

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