Rupiah Ends Trading at 17,694 per US Dollar
The rupiah exchange rate against the US dollar weakened 27 points or 0.15% at the close of trading to Rp17,721 per US dollar, compared with the previous close of Rp17,694 per US dollar.
Currency analyst and Director of Laba Forexindo Berjangka Ibrahim Assuabi assessed that the rupiah’s depreciation was influenced by the market’s negative response to Indonesia’s widening current account deficit in the second quarter of 2026, which reached 12.5 billion US dollars or 3.3% of gross domestic product (GDP).
“The figure increased sharply compared with the deficit in the previous quarter, which was recorded at 3.6 billion US dollars or 1% of GDP. The widening of the current account deficit was influenced by a number of factors that are expected to be temporary, one of which is the increase in oil imports in line with high world oil prices,” he said in a written statement in Jakarta on Monday (24/8).
Although the current account experienced a widening deficit, he continued, the overall performance of Indonesia’s balance of payments (BOP) remained maintained. In the second quarter of 2026, the BOP recorded a deficit of 900 million US dollars, far lower than the deficit of 9.1 billion US dollars in the first quarter of 2026. The improvement was supported by capital and financial transactions that reversed to record a surplus of 12 billion US dollars, after experiencing a deficit of 4.8 billion US dollars in the previous quarter.
“However, analysts warn that Indonesia’s current account gap may continue to widen along with persistently high crude oil prices, strong oil import volumes, and weakening exports due to the slowdown in global economic growth and increasing political tensions in the Middle East between the US, Israel, and Iran as well as Russia and Ukraine in Eastern Europe,” he said.
In addition, business activity in the US services sector was recorded as solid, with the S&P Global US Services PMI index for August exceeding the forecast of 54 by reaching 56.8, the highest level since December 2024, far surpassing the previous month’s figure of 54.6.
Nevertheless, the Manufacturing PMI slowed from 53.9 to 53.2, the lowest level in five months.
“On the other hand, concerns about inflation due to energy prices amid ongoing tensions in the Middle East could trigger the possibility of a Federal Reserve interest rate hike in the coming months,” said Ibrahim.
Meanwhile, Bank Indonesia’s Jakarta Interbank Spot Dollar Rate (JISDOR) actually strengthened today to Rp17,703 per US dollar from the previous Rp17,705 per US dollar.