Moderna's COVID-19 Vaccine Development Makes Rupiah Fly To IDR 14,040 Per US Dollar

JAKARTA - The rupiah exchange rate on the spot market opened higher on trading Tuesday, November 17. The rupiah opened up 0.50 percent or 70 points to a level of Rp14,040 per US dollar.

Head of Research at Monex Investindo Futures, Ariston Tjendra, said the rupiah has the potential to strengthen again today with new positive sentiment from the report on the development of the COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna which states that the test results show high effectiveness of 94.5 percent.

"The results from Moderna have added to market confidence that a vaccine will be released soon and the economy can recover soon. Prices of risk assets are moving higher in response to this news," Ariston told VOI.

In addition, the trade balance surplus in October and the projection of positive growth in the Indonesian economy in the fourth quarter by Bank Indonesia (BI) also provided positive sentiment to the rupiah.

"The rupiah has the potential to move in the range of Rp. 14,000-14,150 per US dollar today," he explained.

This morning, the Garuda currency looks strong, along with the majority of currencies in other Asian regions. The Japanese yen strengthened 0.06 percent, the Singapore dollar gained 0.02 percent, the Taiwan dollar added 0.02 percent, and the South Korean won gained 0.12 percent.

Then the Indian rupee rose 0.06 percent, the Chinese yuan strengthened 0.20 percent, the Malaysian ringgit added 0.18 percent, and the Thai baht rose 0.09 percent. Only, the Philippine peso is seen weakening 0.04 percent against the US dollar.