"The domestic news caused the rupiah to weaken. Our current account deficit announced last Friday exceeds its forecast. In fact, it is higher than the third-quarter deficit," money market analyst Dini Nurhadi Yasyi of Monex Investindo Futures said on Monday.
The rupiah closed at Rp13,955 per dollar earlier.
The current account deficit in the fourth quarter of 2018 was US$9.1 billion, or 3.57 percent of the national gross domestic product (GDP). Overall, the current account deficit last year reached 2.98 percent of the GDP, up from 1.6 percent of the GDP in 2017.
On the external side, the global market was relatively stable on Tuesday. "Investors prefer to invest in dollar as safe haven as the market is still concerned about the global economic slowdown after the central banks of Australia, Britain, and Europe simultaneously slashed their economic growth projection," Yasyi stated.
Hence, in the medium term, the rupiah still had a chance to strengthen within the range of Rp13 thousand to Rp14 thousand per dollar, he noted.
The rupiah traded at Rp13,988 per dollar in the morning. Throughout Monday, the rupiah stayed in the range of Rp13,985 to Rp14,048 per dollar.
Meanwhile, according to the Bank Indonesia mid-rate on Monday, the rupiah tumbled to Rp13,995 per dollar compared to Rp13,992 in the previous day.
Reporting by Citro Atmoko, Suharto
Editing by Eliswan Azly
Reporter: Antara
Editor: Suharto
Copyright © ANTARA 2019
