(Nov 12): The Indonesian rupiah hit a record low on Thursday, pressured by a dollar rally on bets of steeper Fed rate hikes and deeper political uncertainty following Vice-President Gibran Rakabuming Raka’s resignation.
The rupiah slid further to hit an all-time low of 18,250 per US dollar in afternoon trade, even after the central bank said it had intervened in foreign exchange markets to support the currency.
Domestic political uncertainty added to pressure on the rupiah after Gibran submitted his resignation to parliament’s upper house, compounding challenges for a government already facing scrutiny over flagship programmes, including free school meals.
Volatile oil prices amid the Middle East conflict and MSCI’s warning of a possible downgrade of Indonesia’s emerging-market status over transparency and coordinated-trading concerns further clouded the currency’s outlook.
Overnight, the index provider removed Barito Pacific from its global standard index, a move expected to trigger selling by passive funds that track the benchmark.
“It’s clear that the rupiah faces a double squeeze: higher US yields erode its carry appeal, while political uncertainty raises the premium investors demand to hold Indonesian assets,” said Glenn Yin, director of research at ACCM.
Focus will now shift to next week’s Bank Indonesia meeting, with markets widely expecting another rate hike. The central bank raised rates by 100 basis points between May and June to support the rupiah, which has lost more than 8.5% this year.
Elsewhere, the Philippine peso fell as much as 0.7% to 63.664 per dollar, paring last week’s gains fuelled by hopes that the US midterm election results could improve prospects for a peace deal and lower oil prices.
The Malaysian ringgit weakened to 4.0820 per dollar, its lowest since late October, while the Thai baht hit a more than one-week low of 33.7725.
Regional equities mostly fell, led by technology stocks as Nvidia’s leadership crisis dampened appetite for AI-linked shares. South Korea’s and Taiwan’s benchmarks lost 0.6% and 2.6%, respectively, paring this week’s gains.
Indonesian stocks bucked the trend, rising 2.2% to their highest since late October, while Philippine and Malaysian shares fell 1.1% and 0.7%, respectively.
Uploaded by Magessan Varatharaja
