US Dollar Soars, Housewife Screams

JAKARTA The heated conflict between Iran and Israel over the past month has also affected the global economic situation, including Indonesia. The rupiah exchange rate against the United States (US) dollar has weakened, and mothers are said to feel the most impact.

Iran launched hundreds of drones or drones into Israel on Saturday (13/4/2024) midnight. The Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN) or Iran's state TV network confirmed this was a response to Israel's airstrikes against the Iranian consulate in Damascus in early April.

Not only destroying buildings, the Israeli attack at that time also killed 13 people including an important general at the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) Mohammad Reza Zahedi and several other officers.

Increasing geopolitical tensions after Iran launched a retaliatory attack on Israel had an impact on the world economy, including Indonesia.

One of the most highlighted impacts of the geopolitical situation in the Middle East is the weakening of the rupiah exchange rate against the United States dollar. As of Wednesday (24/4/2024), the rupiah's position was at IDR 16,150 per US dollar.

Seeing that the rupiah exchange rate has not improved, the impact is not only felt by business actors, but also people's daily lives, namely the skyrocketing price of basic necessities. Housewives are one of the sectors affected, because the weakening of the rupiah has an effect on the micro-economic decisions taken by them in managing family finances.

This was revealed by the Head of the Center of Digital Economy and Small and Micro Enterprises (SMEs) INDEF Eisha Maghfiraga. Judging from the consumer side, the weakening of the rupiah exchange rate against the increasing US dollar will certainly have an impact on larger expenses, especially on basic commodities that depend on imports.

"In the components of basic materials, there are also imports. For example, rice, tempeh because soybeans are imported and others. For mothers, the prices in the market will increase, they will scream," said Eisha, at the Indef Public Discussion, Saturday (20/4), quoted by Antara.

In terms of MSME entrepreneurs, the pressure on the US dollar also has an impact on the increase in input prices. This is because MSME players are currently mostly resellers or more popularly called resellers, who take their products from foreign goods.

"So depreciation (rupiah) can have an impact on production costs, so that in the end the product price will increase if you can't hold the cost of the production burden," he explained.

In the midst of complaints from women who find it difficult to manage money when the rupiah continues to weaken, the Chief Executive of the Financial Services Business Behavior Supervisory, Education and Protection of Consumers of the Financial Services Authority (OJK), Friderica Widyasari Dewi provides tips, especially for women who have a business.

According to this woman who is familiarly called Kiki, mothers must be able to separate business financial and family finances. Because according to her, many women allocate money from businesses to spend their family needs.

"Family management has emergency funds, maybe it has cash cushions (emergency funds) if there is an increase in rice prices and others. Usually we teach it can be 3-6 times from our monthly expenses," said Kiki after the Financial Education event for MSME Women in the Multipurpose Hall of the National Library Jakarta, Tuesday (23/4).

But Kiki emphasized that the allocation of emergency funds for each family cannot be equated. According to him, emergency funds depend on the number of children, needs every month, and other factors. Mothers should also prepare expenditure posts for children's school fees and general needs such as electricity costs.

"In addition, how much has been saved, how much has been invested. To fight inflation, we teach for investment," he said.