U.S. dollar exchange rate

U.S. dollar exchange rate

From Pikiran Rakyat

In his Jan. 7 draft state budget statement to the House of Representatives, President Soeharto used an estimated exchange rate of Rp 4,000 to the dollar. Later, following negotiations with Mr. Michel Camdessus, the executive director of the IMF, this figure was revised to Rp 5,000 to the dollar.

It was stipulated that the exchange rate will remain "floating", in the sense that it will be determined by the "market".

The word market is between inverted commas because U.S. dollars are not a commodity, and may not become one. If U.S. dollars become a saleable commodity, the result will be what we are currently witnessing -- an unnatural rise in the U.S. dollar exchange rate.

To prevent U.S. dollars from being treated as a commodity, allow me, one of the common people who have never possessed U.S. dollars, and who have seen them only on TV when wealthy people "sold" them, to suggest that the government should set the U.S. dollar exchange rate at Rp 3,000 using the law, or a presidential decree. It must also be stipulated that banks, state or otherwise, and money changers in the Republic of Indonesia only serve people who really need U.S. dollars, at a rate of Rp 3,000 to the dollar. If the dollars are sold to banks or money changers, the exchange rate will be more or less the same (between Rp 2,750 and Rp 2,900).

With this provision, people will not rush to buy U.S. dollars because they will not be worth as much as they are now. And, in the end, the entire population will love their rupiah.

IDIH SUPRIJADI

Bandung, West Java