Rupiah Remains Stable Against US Dollar

Wednesday, 4 August 2010

ANTARA News

The rupiah remained stable against the US dollar in the Jakarta interbank spot market, as investors were worried about the re-denomination discourse.

Bank Indonesia (BI), the country`s central bank, recently mentioned about a study to redenominate the Indonesian currency.

The local unit traded Rp8,938-Rp8,948 per US dollar, similar to that at the market`s close in the earlier day.

Vice President Boediono said Tuesday (July 3) that the government had no plan yet to re-denominate the country`s rupiah currency.

"It (rupiah re-denomination) is a mere study being carried out by Bank Indonesia and it is indeed something in the domain of the central bank," he told newsmen.

Investors, however, were cautious about the discourse, according to Finan Corpindo Nusa President Director Edwin Sinaga.

Sinaga believed that the rupiah`s position at the current level was sound, as it was quite stable.

Both exporters and importers got benefit from the rupiah`s appreciation, he said.
Vice President Boediono, who was former BI Governor, said the study was being done by BI and it was indeed the domain of the central bank to study various options and it would continue.

On when the study would be finished and implemented in Indonesia, Boediono said the government still had to wait for its results and if they were already definitive there would still be a long process before it was implemented.

"Indeed some countries have already done it such as Turkey.It is still being studied by BI and again it is still something under study and will not yet be implemented in the near future," he said.

Boediono said the most important thing to do now was maintaining the country`s monetary economic stability and monitoring inflation which was starting to rise.

The Vice President called on the people not to be influenced by the results of the study of Bank Indonesia and jointly keep the situation good and calm. (*)