The rupiah interbank trade rate in Jakarta depreciated in Friday’s opening session by 24 basis points to Rp 12,504 per US dollar from Rp 12,480 per US dollar in the earlier trade.
“The rupiah weakened against the US dollar in the morning since a number of currencies across Asia failed to appreciate in the market,” Woori Korindo Securities Indonesia head of research Reza Priyambada said as quoted by Antara news agency.
The Korean won depreciated following the Korean government’s decision to cut its rates while the Japanese yen weakened due to slowdown in its government bond sales.
“The market players are using the momentum [of negative sentiments from Korea and Japan] to enter the US dollar market, thus putting pressure on the domestic currency,” Reza said.
Separately, Samuel Sekuritas economist Rangga Cipta added that the ongoing contretemps between the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the National Police had caused a number of investors to worry about the impact on the nation’s economic development this year.
Rangga also said that the market players were anticipating the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) announcement on the country’s macroeconomic data, such as inflation rate and trade balance, on Monday.
If the data was as good as the market expected, the rupiah would appreciate next week, he promised. (nfo)
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