Fall of the rupiah imminent?

There has been speculation in Indonesia lately that something resembling the monetary debacle which ravaged Thailand may take place here. In Thailand, the national currency, the baht, fell due to the greed that exists among some of its citizens.

It is feared that our own country will meet a similar fate as there are some similarities. These include a large current account deficit, large amounts of banking resources that are being channeled into the property sector, and declining exports due to the strengthening of the American dollar.

But economic indicators can be identical without necessarily causing the same problems, because in each of the two countries other decisive factors exist. Quite often, those factors cannot be measured because they denote quality, rather than quantity.

We are grateful that different views and comments, as well as criticism, have been offered, which could guide us while we anticipate what might happen.

-- Bisnis Indonesia, Jakarta