Facing Pressure On Rupiah, Bahana TCW Emphasizes The Importance Of Investment Diversification

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The movement of the rupiah exchange rate which tends to weaken (depreciation) against the US dollar continues to show a continuing trend. The pressure on the rupiah exchange rate is predicted by many parties to continue and will get bigger in the future. This is in line with the aggressiveness of the Central Bank of the United States which continues to raise the benchmark interest rate. This condition needs to be responded to by the public by diversifying investments in order to maintain optimal investment returns. Since the beginning of the year (year to date/ytd) until early November 2022, the rupiah has weakened by 9.65 percent against the US dollar. One of these pressures is due to the Fed's move which since the beginning of the year has raised interest rates that are bigger than the central bank of any country in the world, including Bank Indonesia. From the beginning of the year until early November 2022, the Fed has raised its interest rate by 3.75 percent compared to BI which has just raised interest rates by 1.25 percent. Director of PT Bahana TCW Investment Management, Dania Adblackata in her statement, Friday, November 4, said that it is not impossible that this weakening will continue for the next few months. Although Bahana TCW sees this weakening will not occur chronicly, this kind of momentum requires public foresight in diversifying investments, especially to investments denominated by the US dollar, to keep its investment return rate optimal. In the midst of pressure on the Rupiah as it is today, Bahana TCW has one of the Money Market Fund Mutual products recording optimal performance. The USD Bahana Liquid mutual fund, which was launched since August 2014, has recorded a brilliant performance as well as an alternative choice for the public to diversify investment into US dollar denominations. The performance of the USD Bahana Liquid Fund (BLU) for the past year managed to score a return rate of 0.34 percent as of October 31, 2022. However, along with banks who helped increase the interest rate of US dollar denomination deposits in response to the upward trend in global interest rates, BLU managed to score a return rate of 0.06 percent in the past month. If it is assumed that this rate will last and even continue to increase in the next year, then BLU has the potential to be able to print a return rate of 1-1.30 percent per person (p.a). Of course, past performance does not reflect future performance and this figure is relatively greater than the rate of foreign deposit rates in several large national banks. The high interest of investors in this product is reflected in the rapid growth of managed funds which in early November had exceeded the US $ 133 million or the equivalent of more than IDR 2 trillion, up more than double since early 2022. "The steps taken by several banks to start increasing the rate of foreign exchange rates are a clear indicator for investors to take advantage of the momentum to increase the return of the Money Market Fund in the near future. Our analysis is that the trend of increasing this return will continue to be maintained. Given the trend of increasing interest rates The Fed is expected to continue to occur until at least the beginning of next year, "explained Dania.