Major BI Intervention After Dollar Breaches Rp 17,400
Jakarta - Bank Indonesia Governor Perry Warjiyo has admitted to conducting large-scale interventions to maintain the stability of the rupiah exchange rate against the US dollar, which has been under pressure in recent times. He stated that to safeguard exchange rate stability, BI has relied on foreign exchange reserves (cadev). Perry exemplified that this major intervention is evident from Indonesia’s remaining cadev of US$148.2 billion in March 2026, a decline of around US$3.7 billion compared to the previous month’s figure of US$151.9 billion. “That is not business as usual; it is all out. Large-scale intervention with cadev shown to have dropped to US$148.2 billion," said Perry during a press conference on the results of the KSSK meeting on Thursday (7/5/2026). He explained that although cadev is one of the mainstays for exchange rate stability interventions, its amount is more than sufficient to finance Indonesia's external needs. The latest figure still exceeds the international minimum adequacy standard of three months of imports, as March 2026 data equates to financing 6.0 months of imports or 5.8 months of imports and government external debt payments. "That is more than enough; we measure the needs for interventions, and please remember that cadev is accumulated during periods of large inflows," he elaborated. As is known, at the start of this week, the rupiah exchange rate was cornered up to the upper level of Rp 17,400/US$. Citing Refinitiv data, at 09:07 WIB, the rupiah was observed weakening by 0.22% to the level of Rp 17,403/US.ThispositionindicatesadeepeningweakeningcomparedtothemorningtradingopenatRp17, 380/US. With this movement, the rupiah officially breached the psychological level of Rp 17,400/US, simultaneouslyrecordingthelatestall − timeintradayweakestlevel.However, therupiahexchangerateclosedstrongeragainsttheUSdollarinThursday′strading(7/5/2026).RefinitivdatashowsthattheGarudacurrencymanagedtoendtheday′stradinginthegreenzonewithanappreciationof0.29.