Rupiah Drops Make Material Prices Expensive, Budget For Swelling IKN Projects?

Illustration (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

The weakening of the rupiah against the United States (US) dollar is predicted to have an impact on the price of imported goods.

Thus, this can trigger budgets in several constrained projects, including for the construction of the State Capital (IKN) of the Archipelago.

Minister of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) Basuki Hadimuljono as well as Acting Head of the IKN Authority responded to this.

Basuki assessed that the impact was not only on the IKN mega project, but for other projects.

"Actually, if it will have an impact, not only in IKN. Other places will definitely have an impact," said Basuki when met by reporters at his office, Friday, June 21.

He admitted that the impact would be discussed at a plenary meeting with President Jokowi on Monday next week.

Citing the Jakarta Interbank Spot Dollar Rate (Jisdor) page of Bank Indonesia (BI), Friday, June 21, at 15.59 WIB, the rupiah exchange rate was at a price level of Rp. 16,458 per US dollar.

"On Monday, the plenary cabinet session will discuss one of them. Later there will be a national grand decision so that others can escalate," he said.

He did not deny that the current weakening situation of the rupiah had similarities to the situation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"In the past, during the pandemic (budget) also swelled. Right, situational. That's why the Minister of Finance (Sri Mulyani) always said that our instrument was the state budget. The state budget is an instrument for that," he said.

Previously, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartanto said that there was a weakening of the rupiah because the current economic condition of the United States (US) was improving.

"Yes, we'll just monitor it. Because, right, the various USD currencies are strong and the US economy is indeed improving," said Airlangga when met by reporters at his office, Thursday, June 20.

According to him, Bank Indonesia (BI) will continue to monitor this every day.

"We just monitor it and it's BI which will continue to monitor it daily," he said.