BI Governor Bluntly Reveals Cause of Rupiah Breaching Rp 17,300
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Bank Indonesia’s (BI) Senior Deputy Governor Destry Damayanti has revealed the reasons behind the rupiah’s pressure against the US dollar today, weakening to above Rp 17,300 per US dollar.
As known, based on Refinitiv data, at 09:32 WIB, the Garuda currency weakened by 0.79% to Rp 17,305 per US dollar. This level also marks the rupiah’s weakest position ever on an intraday basis.
According to Destry, the pressure on the rupiah today is inseparable from high global uncertainty. Therefore, she emphasised that the rupiah’s exchange rate against the US dollar is not weakening on its own.
“The pressure on the rupiah since this morning is largely due to rising global uncertainty, causing regional currencies to face similar pressures,” Destry told CNBC Indonesia.
For this reason, she assured that Bank Indonesia will continue to increase the intensity of interventions to maintain rupiah exchange rate stability and strengthen the interest rate structure of pro-market instruments to remain attractive for capital inflows into domestic asset instruments, amid the ongoing impact of the Middle East war.
“We will continue to carry out consistent interventions through Non-Deliverable Forward (NDF) transactions in the offshore market, spot transactions and Domestic Non-Deliverable Forward (DNDF) in the domestic market, accompanied by SBN purchases in the secondary market,” said Destry.
She emphasised that the rupiah’s weakening is still in line with the region. On a year-to-date basis, the rupiah exchange rate is considered to have weakened by minus 3.54%, and foreign exchange reserves remain at US$148.2 billion at the end of March 2026.
Based on notes from CNBC Indonesia’s research team, Asian countries’ currencies are moving in a weakening zone against the US dollar in this morning’s trading on Thursday (23/4/2026).
Referring to Refinitiv data, at 09:40 WIB, out of ten monitored Asian currencies, only two strengthened and seven others weakened against the greenback. The deepest weakening occurred in the rupiah, which corrected sharply by up to 0.82% to Rp 17,310 per US dollar.
Meanwhile, significant pressure was also experienced by the Philippine peso, which weakened 0.62% to PHP 60.46 per US dollar, followed by the Thai baht which fell 0.43% to THB 32.36 per US dollar.
The South Korean won weakened 0.21% to KRW 1,481.5 per US dollar, while the Malaysian ringgit fell 0.25% to MYR 3.96 per US dollar. The Taiwanese dollar weakened 0.15% to TWD 31.51 per US dollar, while the Singapore dollar fell 0.07% to SGD 1.276 per US dollar. The Chinese yuan also weakened slightly by 0.02% to CNY 6.828 per US dollar.
The two currencies that still managed to strengthen are the Vietnamese dong, which rose 0.08% to VND 26,300 per US dollar, and the Japanese yen, which strengthened slightly by 0.01% to JPY 159.46 per US dollar.