This Afternoon Rupiah Strengthens To Rp.13,642 Per US Dollar

Illustration. (Photo: Bank Indonesia)

JAKARTA - The rupiah exchange rate managed to strengthen in trading Thursday, January 16 this afternoon. Quoting Bloomberg, the rupiah was successfully closed at Rp 13,642 per US dollar. This position rose 52 points or 0.38 percent compared to the previous day's closing.

Head of Research at PT Monex Investindo Futures Ariston Tjendra told VOI that the strengthening of the rupiah against the US dollar was still due to positive sentiment from the signing of the US China trade agreement.

"And plus the US bond yields are declining," he said

Deputy Governor of BI Dody Budi Waluyo said that the strengthening of the rupiah that has continued since early 2020 is still in line with economic fundamentals, due to improvements in a number of domestic economic indicators.

Big players responded to sentiment ahead of the announcement of economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2019, which BI believed would be better than the third quarter of 2019 which amounted to 5.02 percent.

In addition, said Dody, the drastic reduction in the trade balance deficit to US $ 3.2 billion in 2019 compared to US $ 8 billion in 2018 was also a positive catalyst that strengthened the rupiah.

"Inflation in 2019 is also under control. Many of these factors have made the rupiah strengthen and are still in accordance with the fundamentals," he said.