Rupiah Monday Potentially Continues Weakening

JAKARTA - The rupiah exchange rate in trading Monday, April 1, 2024, is expected to continue to weaken the United States (US) dollar.

Quoting Bloomberg, the Rupiah exchange rate on Thursday, March 28, the rupiah spot exchange closed slightly higher by 0.01 percent to the level of Rp15,856 per US dollar. Meanwhile, the Jakarta Interbank Spot Dollar Rate (Jisdor) exchange rate of Bank Indonesia (BI) closed lower by 0.12 percent to a price level of Rp15,873 per US dollar.

Director of PT Profit Forexindo Berjangka Ibrahim Assuaibi said analysts are optimistic that national economic growth in the first quarter of 2024 will not be far from 5 percent.

"The main support for the pace of economic growth is due to the effect of providing work allowance and THR components at the moment of Eid al-Fitr 1445 which falls on April 9, 2024," he explained in his official statement, quoted Monday, April 1, 2024.

Then, Ibrahim said that commodities such as rice should not be too high anymore because in March the main harvest season and the peak of the harvest will occur in April 2024, so that rice prices will fall again.

In addition, the impact of this inflation will reduce people's purchasing power, especially for the lower middle class, there will be a decrease in purchasing power.

However, the upper middle class will be relatively strong and not too much affected by food inflation so that it will affect economic growth this year.

Previously, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati was optimistic that the provision of 100 percent performance allowance components on holiday allowances (THR) and 13 ASN salaries had a positive impact on economic growth in 2024.

The provision of 100 percent Tukin composition is the government's effort to achieve Indonesia's economic growth target by 2024 of 5.2 percent year on year (YoY).

Ibrahim estimates that the rupiah will fluctuate but close lower in trading on April 1, 2024, in the price range of IDR 15,840 - IDR 15,910 per US dollar.