Rupiah woes, who is to blame ?<\/p>\n
The 1997-1998 regional monetary crisis saw the rupiah exchange
\nrate to the dollar at Rp 17,000, and up to Aug. 29 it reached
\nnearly Rp 11,800. If further uncertainty prevailed, meaning the
\nrecent concrete measures taken by the government and the monetary
\nauthority did not help strengthen the rupiah, monetary crisis
\nchapter two would be inevitable.<\/p>\n
Calls from members of the House of Representatives and
\nobservers to immediately reshuffle the Cabinet, particularly
\nPresident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's (SBY's) economic team, have
\naggravated the situation and seem to be unfair. There's a strong
\nrelationship between both SBY's economic team and the Central
\nBank (BI), the latter being the nation's monetary authority. Such
\ncalls should have also been addressed to it.<\/p>\n
The recent drama could have been avoided had the BI done
\nsomething. Take for, example, one of the first things the U.S.
\nFed governor Alan Greenspan did when he took leadership of the
\nFederal Reserve. He put together a plan to follow in the event of
\na market emergency (The Jakarta Post, Aug. 29), meaning that
\ncrisis management became his hallmark.<\/p>\n
Just two months into the job, he needed it as the stock market
\ndropped 508 points on Oct. 19, 1987 (Black Monday) the biggest
\none-day loss since the Great Depression, sending shock waves
\nthrough financial markets at home and abroad. What did he do
\nthen? He quickly reassured Wall Street that the central bank
\nwould supply all the credit necessary to keep the nation's
\nfinancial system afloat.<\/p>\n
During the recent crucial period, though to no avail, only
\nCoordinating Minister for the Economy Aburizal Bakrie and
\nMinister of Finance Yusuf Anwar visited the Jakarta Stock
\nExchange to help invigorate the slumping financial market. The BI
\ngovernor and his deputies were nowhere to be found, and instead
\nit was SBY who made a visit to the BI's office to discuss the
\nmatter.<\/p>\n
M. RUSDI, Jakarta<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/rupiah-woes-who-is-to-blame-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }