Indonesia's Rupiah Strengthening Sharply vs US Dollar, Why?
The Indonesian rupiah has been appreciated significantly over the past two days versus the US dollar. By 12:00 noon local Jakarta time on Wednesday (07/12), Indonesia's currency had strengthened 0.29 percent to IDR 13,331 per US dollar (based on the Bloomberg Dollar Index). Meanwhile, Bank Indonesia's Jakarta Interbank Spot Dollar Rate (JISDOR) appreciated 0.51 percent to IDR 13,336 per US dollar today. Lets zoom in on this performance.
The rupiah continued its impressive performance on Wednesday after having appreciated 0.52 percent against the greenback on the preceding day. This strong performance is attributed to late tax amnesty asset repatriations. The second phase of the tax amnesty program will end on 31 December 2016 and it is expected that some IDR 100 trillion (approx. USD $7.5 billion) worth of funds will be repatriated to Indonesia before the year-end under the government's tax amnesty program.
Meanwhile, Indonesia's Finance Ministry sold IDR 6.2 trillion (approx. USD $464 million) of bonds at an auction on Tuesday (06/12). This result is in line with the indicative target.
The T-bills that mature in March 2017 have a weighted average yield of 5.81175 percent, while the T-bills that mature in December 2017 have a weighted average yield of 6.62500 percent. The weighted average yield for bonds maturing in May 2022 was 7.63826 percent, higher than 6.96991 percent at the previous auction on 8 November 2016. Lastly, the weighted average yield for bonds maturing in May 2027 was 7.89107 percent, higher than 7.33979 percent at the Finance Ministry's preceding auction.
Indonesian Rupiah versus US Dollar (JISDOR):
| Source: Bank IndonesiaContrary to most Asian stocks on Wednesday, Indonesia's benchmark Jakarta Composite Index is in the red zone. In Wednesday's first trading session the index fell 0.75 percent to 5,233.64 points. It is assumed that after a six-day rally investors engage in profit-taking, particularly now the rupiah has strengthened considerably over the past two days.