Analyst Calls Rupiah Restrained Supported by Indonesia's Economic Growth Still Strong

JAKARTA - Money market analyst at Bank Woori Saudara BWS Rully Nova said that the rupiah was protected from weakening due to support from data on Indonesia's still strong economic growth.

"Indonesia's economic growth in the second quarter of 2023 (reaching 5.17 percent)," he said as quoted by Antara, Thursday, August 10.

He estimates that the rupiah exchange rate against the United States (US) dollar at the close of trading will weaken to the level of IDR 15,225 per US dollar.

However, at the close of trading today, the rupiah strengthened by 0.18 percent or 28 points to IDR 15,189 per US dollar from the previous IDR 15,217 per US dollar.

According to him, the sentiment that also affected the movement of the weakening rupiah was the inflation data of China's Producer Price Index (PPI) and Consumer Price Index (CPI).

In addition, the downgrade of 10 banking ratings by Moody's is considered to weaken the rupiah.

Money market analyst Lukman Leong said that China's PPI and CPI inflation data gave a mixed picture.

"In general, the rupiah and Asian regional currencies moved mixed and strengthened slightly," he said.

CPI year on year (yoy) data is said to be -0.3 percent and PPI yoy -4.4 percent.

"YoY CPI and PPI still show deflation, while CPI month to month (mom) shows a 0.2 percent increase," said Lukman.

Bank Indonesia's Jakarta Interbank Spot Dollar Rate (JISDOR) exchange rate on Wednesday also strengthened the rupiah's position to IDR 15,206 from the previous IDR 15,229.