Friday Morning Rupiah Weakened To IDR 15,950 Per US Dollar, Ready To IDR 16,000?

Illustration. (Photo: Bank Indonesia)

JAKARTA - The rupiah exchange rate on the spot market continues to weaken at the opening of trading today. The rupiah weakened 0.23 percent or 37 points to a level of Rp15,950 per US dollar.

Based on VOI monitoring, at 8:33 a.m., the rupiah continued to weaken. The rupiah was down 0.31 percent to a level of Rp15,962 per US dollar.

However, there is an optimistic tone in the opinion of the Head of Research at Monex Investindo Futures, Ariston Tjendra. He said the good news from China which reported no new cases of transmission at the epicenter of the outbreak in Hubei province for the second day, coupled with the positive US stock index yesterday, could be a positive sentiment for financial markets today.

"The stock indexes for Australia, Korea and Hong Kong moved positively in the early days of trading today. The rupiah has the potential to also strengthen following positive financial market sentiment. The rupiah has the potential to move in the range of Rp15,500-16,000," Ariston told VOI.

This morning the Asian currencies moved mixed. Where, the rupiah became the currency with the deepest weakness in the Asian region.

The equivalent of three dollars to the rupiah is the Malaysian ringgit and the Singapore dollar, which also fell by 0.10 percent and 0.09 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Japanese yen and Hong Kong dollar also edged down 0.09 percent and 0.01 percent, respectively.

The South Korean won managed to become the highest strengthening currency today, after gaining 2.17 percent against the greenback. His position was followed by the Thai baht which strengthened 0.29 percent.

Sentiment from the easing of policies by Bank Indonesia has not had much effect on the movement of the Garuda currency. As is known, Thursday, March 19, BI decided to lower the BI interest rate by 25 basis points (bps) to 4.5 percent. The decision was taken by looking at global economic conditions due to the impact of the corona virus.

BI also lowered the deposit facility interest rate by 25 bps to 3.75 percent and the lending facility rate fell 25 bps to 5.25 percent. Monetary policy remains accommodative and consistent with the forecast for controlled inflation and measures to maintain economic growth momentum.

In addition, as a continuation of the stimulus from the policy stimulus announced in January and March 2, 2020, BI has again strengthened its policy mix aimed at supporting efforts to mitigate the risk of the spread of the corona virus (COVID-19) maintaining financial market stability and stimulating economic growth. go through seven steps.