President Director of Bank Mandiri, Budi Gunadi, said scarcity had happened because some businessmen had kept the dollars to wait for further rupiah depreciation for bigger profit.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - A banker called on market players here on Thursday to not worry about rupiah depreciation in the past few days that surpassed Rp10,000 per US dollar because dollar supply is abundant in the market.

President Director of Bank Mandiri, Budi Gunadi, said scarcity had happened because some businessmen had kept the dollars to wait for further rupiah depreciation for bigger profit.

"It is not that the rupiah has plunged below Rp10,000 against the US dollar five times so far. Later when the situation is normal again it will return to a level of Rp9,000 or Rp8,000. So, there is nothing special about it," he said during a fast-breaking gathering with journalists.

He said panic occurred perhaps because of media reporting that had impressed dollar scarcity while the fact was it is abundant.

Budi admitted that in the past few years the rupiah exchange rate against the US dollar had never reached above Rp10,000 but he said one must also remember that when the government raised the price of oil in 2008 the rupiah exchange rate even reached Rp12,000 per dollar.

"We were not surprised because the rupiah had often surpassed that level then. But now we have been surprised to see it surpassing Rp10,000 per dollar while in fact it is not special," he said.

Budi said with the rupiah exchange rate now surpassing Rp10,000 he hoped those who had kept US dollars would start selling them.

"Bank Indonesia would make the rupiah to appreciate slowly and we as a market maker or big trader have been asked to help dollar transactions to be smooth again to make the market calm again," he said.

Based on the interbank spot dollar rate (JISDOR) since early in July the rupiah has continued to depreciate. On July 1 it reached Rp9,934 per dollar and on July 15 it broke the Rp10,000 level.

On Thursday the rupiah exchange rate was recorded at Rp10,059. (*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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