Low Rupiah, Weakening 0.29 Percent To IDR13,675 Per US Dollar

JAKARTA - The rupiah exchange rate closed sluggishly at the close of trading on Friday, February 7. The rupiah on the spot market closed down 0.29 percent at Rp13,675 per US dollar.

Head of Research at Monex Investindo Futures, Ariston Tjendra, said market concerns about the corona virus were again triggering the weakening.

"Yesterday and this morning we reported the additional spread of the virus in China, Singapore and Japan," said Ariston to VOI.

He added that US and Australian central bank officials also expressed concern over the potential for a global economic slowdown due to the corona virus.

Apart from that, continued Ariston, the recent US economic data was quite good, above market expectations which had driven the strengthening of the US dollar.

"The market may also be wary of the continued strengthening of the US dollar because the data which will be released tonight at 20.30 WIB, the US-Non-farm Payrolls employment data," he explained.

The weakening of the rupiah is in line with the majority of currencies in the region. The Japanese yen and the Hong Kong dollar were the two currencies that managed to be in the green zone.

The Japanese yen strengthened 0.06 percent and became the currency with the highest gain against the US dollar. Then, the Korean won became the currency with the deepest weakness after falling 0.54 percent, followed by the Malaysian ringgit which fell 0.36 percent.

The Chinese yuan and Singapore dollar were also eroded by 0.23 percent and 0.22 percent, respectively. The Indian rupee and Thai baht were also in the red zone after weakening 0.21 percent and 0.19 percent, respectively.

Then followed the Taiwan dollar and the Philippine peso, which weakened slightly, respectively 0.19 percent and 0.05 percent.