"I think it happened only because of fluctuation in the market," he said when asked to comment on the issue at the parliament building here on Wednesday.
Chatib predicted the fluctuation happened because of profit taking by speculators in the regional markets.
"It is possible it is caused by profit taking as the Jakarta composite index rose very high yesterday," he said.
He said the strengthening of the US dollar was possibly also caused by expectation for the Fed to withdraw its quantitative easing policy.
He however thought that the Fed would not as yet withdraw the policy in the near future.
"The signal sent by Bernanke (the Fed governor) is like that but we must see that it will usually be responded by the market very quickly, he said.
Chatib denied that the rupiah depreciation was the result of the protracted decision on fuel price.
The government is now still discussing the draft revised budget with the parliament upon which the price of subsidized fuel oils would be raised.
The rupiah was traded in the negative area down to Rp9,889 against the US dollar in line with correction of Japanese yen.
At the inter-bank trading the rupiah was traded down 22 percent to Rp9,889 from initially Rp9,867 per US dollar.
reporting satyagraha
(H-YH/O001)
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2013
