Patience Yesmain, Dollar Again Perkasa Makes Rupiah Merana

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The rupiah exchange rate is known to be facing a weakening trend over foreign currencies, especially US dollars, in the past week.

In the opening this morning, the rupiah weakened 18 points or 0.12 percent to Rp. 15,148 per US dollar from the previous Rp. 15,130 per US dollar at yesterday's close.

According to the Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani, this condition cannot be separated from the important role of the United States central bank The Federal Reserve (The Fed) which aggressively raised the benchmark interest rate.

The index dollar has strengthened up to 110. For that, if the dollar strengthens, it means that other currency opponents, especially emerging countries, will experience depreciation. So, the stronger the current dollar, the weaker the opponent," he said when giving a statement to reporters on Monday, September 26.

On the other hand, Bank Indonesia (BI) as the monetary authority in the country has recorded a benchmark interest rate of 75 basis points (bps) in the last two months to 4.25 percent. This effort is intended to keep the rupiah exchange rate under control and in the desired fundamental range.

However, the psychological level of Rp. 15,000 per US dollar seems unable to be dammed and has the potential to become a new level of reference for the rupiah exchange rate.

"Global financial market pressure had eased into mid-August 2022 in line with the release of US inflation for the lower July 2022 period than the previous month," he said.

However, entering the end of August until early September 2022, pressure has increased again after the release of a number of manufacturing prechasing managers (PMIs) who have weakened. Then there is also the threat of an increasing European energy crisis and a hawkish distance from the Fed," said Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani.