Trump's Victory Impacts On Rupiah, Sri Mulyani: The Decreased Is Better Than Other Countries

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the weakening of the rupiah exchange rate due to Donald Trump's re-electing as President of the United States (US) was still better than the exchange rate of the state's employees (peers).

"With Trump's election, the US dollar is experiencing strengthening and the rupiah is depressed. However, our rupiah compared to other countries, both G7 and G20 countries, is still better," said Sri Mulyani quoting Antara.

The US dollar experienced an appreciation of 3.13 percent, while the rupiah was appreciated at 2.68 percent (year-to-date/ytd).

However, the depreciation of currencies in a number of other countries is lower than rupiah, such as the Philippines peso which is depreciated at 5.69 percent, the South Korean won at 6.79 percent, and the Japanese yen at 7.78 percent.

"If we look at the movement of our exchange rate, we had experienced a fairly good strengthening until last October, even reaching Rp15,200. Then there was global sentiment, including the potential for the Fed Fund Rate (FFR) to be lowered again and the election of President Trump," he explained.

Meanwhile, the trend of yields (yield) of domestic state securities (SBN) tends to sideways, because it is still affected by the high level of global uncertainty.

As of October, Indonesia's 10-year bond yields have decreased. But then increased slightly in the last week, where yields reached 6.76 percent. Meanwhile, US Treasury yields are in a trend of increasing to 4.4 percent.

"The difference between our 10-year bonds and the US Treasury is still quite low," he said.

In terms of capital flow, the SBN market experienced an inflow of IDR 14.98 trillion in October. However, in November (as of November 6), the outflow was recorded at IDR 4.12 trillion due to sentiment from the US Presidential Election.

However, ytd, the SBN market recorded an inflow of IDR 39.40 trillion.

It is our economic condition that we will continue to monitor, we will manage especially towards the end of the year. We will certainly follow developments in the fourth quarter-IV for the APBN itself and the overall economy. We hope that it will be maintained until the end of the year in a positive position," said Sri Mulyani.