Rupiah Closed Tuesday At Rp15,173 Per US Dollar, Officially At The Basis Of Asian Standings

Illustration. (Photo: Bank Indonesia)

JAKARTA - The rupiah exchange rate finally ended at around Rp. 15,000 per US dollar. On Tuesday, March 17, the rupiah was helpless and closed, falling 240 points or 1.61 percent to a level of Rp15,173 per US dollar.

Head of Research at Monex Investindo Futures, Ariston Tjendra, said the market was still worried about the spread of the corona virus or COVID-19 outbreak, especially since the WHO had not lowered the status of the pandemic.

"The spread is still ongoing, there are still lockdowns in several countries. This has caused economic activity to decline," Ariston told VOI.

Therefore, he said, the stimulus from the global central bank and government has not been able to reverse the current negative sentiment.

"This is what causes risk assets to remain depressed, including the rupiah," said Ariston.

In the Asian region, the rupiah depreciation of 1.61 percent was the highest this afternoon. Followed by the Korean won which weakened 1.46 percent, the Japanese yen fell 0.64 percent, the Malaysian ringgit and the Thai baht both fell 0.59 percent.

Then the Chinese yuan fell 0.38 percent, the Singapore dollar fell 0.37 percent, the Philippine peso fell 0.34 percent, and the Taiwan dollar weakened 0.12 percent.