Parliament Warns of Rp17,000 Dollar Rate, Instant Noodle Prices to Hurt Indonesian Households
The rupiah exchange rate is increasingly entrenched under pressure above Rp17,000 per US dollar. This level has the potential to exert pressure that could spill over to various goods with imported raw materials, including foodstuffs.
“This Rp17,000 exchange rate must also be taken into account as it creates its own pressure. Because several domestic production components, most of their raw materials are imports,” said Chairman of Commission XI of the House of Representatives, Mukhamad Misbakhun, to CNBC Indonesia on Tuesday (7/4/2026).
Misbakhun stated that one processed foodstuff potentially affected by the rupiah’s pressure against the US dollar is instant noodles. He said instant noodles are produced from plant raw materials that cannot be produced domestically, namely wheat.
When the cost of importing wheat is pressured by the rupiah’s weakening exchange rate, he said, the price of noodles will naturally be affected, pressuring producers to adjust prices going forward.
“For example, Indonesia is one of the world’s major instant noodle producers. Our noodles come from wheat. We import wheat because Indonesia is not a wheat producer,” said Misbakhun.
Besides wheat, he mentioned several other food commodities whose domestic fulfilment still relies on imports. These include meat and soybeans.
“National meat needs, some of which we still have to import. Then our soybean needs are imported. Some of these basic components, we import,” he emphasised.
Nevertheless, Misbakhun appreciated the government’s steps to maintain food security amid exchange rate pressures by improving the supply of main foodstuffs consumed by the public, such as rice. Thus, it is not significantly affected by exchange rate pressures on imported-supplied food.
“It’s extraordinary when the President decides on a paddy price of Rp6,500; our food reserves are strong enough. Last night we had a meeting; we already have 4.4 million tonnes of food reserves in Bulog warehouses spread across the entire archipelago,” explained Misbakhun.
“What does that mean? Our food resilience is strong enough. Towards food sovereignty. Because what? All the existing food reserves come from Indonesian farmers’ production,” he revealed.
For information, the rupiah exchange rate opened weaker against the US dollar in morning trading on Tuesday (7/4/2026).
Referring to Refinitiv data, the Garuda currency opened trading in the red zone with a depreciation of 0.06% to Rp17,040/US.ThisweakeningoccurredaftertheprevioustradingsessiononMonday(6/4/2026), whentherupiahclosedweakerandtouchedanall − timelowofRp17, 030/US.
On the other hand, the US dollar index (DXY) at 09:00 WIB was still moving slightly stronger by 0.14% to 100.113. This indicates that the US dollar remains strong amid high global uncertainties.