Purbaya to push the rupiah to Rp15,000 per US dollar: FX traders, sell quickly...

Jakarta, KOMPAS.com - Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa is optimistic that the rupiah can strengthen again toward the Rp15,000 per US dollar level as foreign capital flows begin to enter the domestic bond market.

Moreover, Purbaya urged foreign exchange market participants to promptly shed their holdings of US dollars, believing the rupiah’s strengthening trend will continue.

“If I say, FX players should sell quickly. We will push the rupiah towards Rp 15,000,” said Purbaya at the Jogja Financial Festival 2026, as quoted from the official LPS YouTube account on Friday 22 May 2026.

He said that the government is currently helping to maintain financial market stability through interventions in the bond market so that the rise in government securities yields does not become too high.

“I am entering the bond market so that yields do not rise too high. In other words, foreigners are not forced to exit Indonesia due to losses,” said Purbaya.

Finance Minister Purbaya claimed the policy is beginning to bear fruit.

In the past week, government bond yields have begun to fall even though the rupiah remains under pressure.

The government, according to Purbaya, is also actively purchasing bonds in the secondary market to maintain price stability of government securities.

“Although the rupiah has weakened, yields on government bonds have tended to fall over the past week because we are buying bonds in the secondary market,” he said.

Purbaya said this is starting to attract foreign investors back to Indonesia’s bond market, both in the secondary and primary markets.

“Foreign investors have already entered our secondary market, and have also entered the primary market. So perhaps now more than Rp2 trillion has flowed into it,” he said.

He assessed that room for declines in Indonesia’s bond yields remains open because the yield gap between Indonesian and US government securities remains at just over 1 per cent.

According to Purbaya, the smaller that yield gap, the more it reflects growing investor confidence in Indonesia’s economic fundamentals.

“Because our economy is very strong now and will accelerate further in the future,” he said.

Purbaya added that foreign investors stand to gain twice if they enter Indonesia’s bond market now, from rising bond prices and the potential strengthening of the rupiah.

“If they enter now, there could be two profits. There is capital gain from rising prices or yield falls. The second is the appreciation of the exchange rate,” he said.