BI caps US dollar purchases at 25,000 per person per month, effective June 2026, to strengthen the rupiah

Bank Indonesia (BI) will again restrict purchases of US dollars to 25,000 per person per month, to be implemented from June 2026. The central bank is optimistic the move will strengthen the rupiah, which has weakened to around Rp17,600–Rp17,700 per US dollar.

BI has imposed the foreign exchange purchases without underlying assets gradually. Previously, the purchases were cut from 100,000 US dollars per person per month to 50,000 US dollars per person per month in April 2026.

Ruth A Cussoy Intama, Director of the Department of Financial Markets Deepening, said the policy is believed to provide stimulus to rupiah. The optimism is based on experience when BI limited dollar purchases in 2015.

‘This threshold adjustment is not a new policy; we did this in 2015,’ Ruth said at a BI Journalist Training event titled ‘Strengthening FX Policy and Intermediation for Rupiah Stability and Credit Growth’ in Makassar, South Sulawesi, on Friday (22 May 2026).

She explained that adjusting the FX transaction threshold is a conventional, dynamic policy, adapting to economic conditions and global and domestic financial markets. BI data show rupiah strengthened when the policy was implemented.

Historical data show the threshold was lowered from 100,000 US dollars per person per month to 25,000 per person per month, before being raised again to 100,000 per person per month in 2022.

In August 2015, the rupiah was at Rp14,065 per US dollar. It strengthened to Rp13,166 per US dollar by June 2016. Reflecting on these experiences, it is hoped that the rupiah, which has already breached around Rp17,700 per US dollar, can strengthen through this instrument and several others.

‘Hopefully this can be one of the tools that helps strengthen the rupiah,’ she said.

Ruth noted that the implementation of the 100,000 to 50,000 per person per month cap by April 2026 had already shown effectiveness. This was evident from the reduction in the daily average turnover (RRH) of FX market transactions. It fell from about $78 million per day in Q1 2026 to $62 million per day in April–May 2026.

‘So we try to lower again to 25,000 US dollars per person per month with the hope the trend will be the same, reducing the need to buy dollars without underlying. The current average per day is around $57 million, and we hope this will fall further,’ she said.