Rupiah Strengthens 7 Points On Friday Afternoon, Caused By The UK Central Bank Interest Rate

JAKARTA - The rupiah exchange rate transacted between banks in Jakarta on Friday, December 17 afternoon closed higher, following the surprise hike in the benchmark interest rate by the British central bank, the Bank of England.

This afternoon the rupiah closed up 7 points or 0.05 percent to the position of IDR 14.355 per US dollar compared to the position at the close of the previous trade of IDR 14.362 per US dollar.

"The dollar is weak today but remains high and under pressure as investors digested the surprise rate hikes from the Bank of England and the European Central Bank which adopted a more hawkish stance," said Ibrahim Ascustombi, analyst and director of PT TRFX Garuda Berjangka in Jakarta, Friday, December 17.

The Bank of England (BoE) surprisingly raised interest rates to 0.25 percent and became the first Group 7 (G7) central bank to raise interest rates since the start of COVID-19.

Meanwhile the European Central Bank (ECB) in its own policy decision which was revealed on the same day as the BoE, announced plans for asset reductions in the coming quarters. However, the ECB also emphasizes policy flexibility.

The Fed previously said it would accelerate its asset reduction program to $30 billion each month. The US central bank also kept interest rates unchanged, but will hike three times in 2022.

Meanwhile, the number of daily COVID-19 cases in the country on Thursday (16/12) yesterday reached 213 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 to 4.26 million. Meanwhile, the number of deaths due to exposure to COVID-19 reached 10 cases, bringing the total to 143.979 cases.

As for the number of recovered cases, it increased by 234 cases so that the total recovered patients reached 4.11 million cases. Thus, the total active cases of COVID-19 reached 4.833 cases.

For vaccination, the number of people who have been injected with the first dose of vaccine has reached 149.21 million people and 105.24 million people have received the second dose of vaccine from the target of 208 million people who were vaccinated.

The rupiah opened lower in the morning to IDR 14.359 per US dollar. Throughout the day the rupiah moved in the range of IDR 14.354 per US dollar to IDR 14.391 per US dollar.