The Indonesian rupiah appreciated markedly in January 2019, and reached its strongest level since the end of June last year. The benchmark JISDOR rate of Bank Indonesia ended the first month of 2019 at IDR 14,072 per US dollar, strengthening from the level of IDR 14,481 per US dollar at the last trading day of 2018. Or, in other words, the rupiah managed to appreciate 2.82 percent against the greenback in the first month of 2019.

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In line with expectations, the central bank of Indonesia (Bank Indonesia) left its interest rates unchanged at the last monetary policy meeting of 2018 (held on 19-20 December 2018). The benchmark BI 7-Day Reverse Repo Rate was held at 6.00 percent, while the deposit facility and lending facility rates were kept at 5.25 percent and 6.75 percent, respectively.

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In 2018 a total of 57 companies made their trading debuts on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). To see 57 Indonesian companies conducting their initial public offering (IPO) on the IDX within 12 months only is a remarkable achievement and a significant increase from 37 IPOs in 2017, and 14 in 2016. It is in fact the biggest number of IPOs for Indonesia since the year 1992. Moreover, big appetite for Indonesian companies to go-public in 2018 is particularly remarkable considering there was plenty of uncertainty lurking about in global and domestic markets.

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Robust rupiah appreciation in the month of November 2018 has taken many people – such as policymakers, businessmen, and analysts, including us – by surprise.

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