The rupiah extended the losing trend to its weakest level in many years at 13,000 from 12,975 per US dollar earlier, after signs of improvement of the US economy, chief researcher of Monex Investindo Futures Ariston Tjendra said.
The improvement of the US economy strengthened the US dollar against the majority of the global currencies including rupiah, he said.
"The US dollar has gained not only over rupiah but also against other currencies," he said.
"In addition, the dollar gain was also contributed by an increase in the yield on US treasury bond in the last few days as a result of excess liquidity by the Bank of Japan , European Central Bank and other central banks," he said.
Meanwhile, chief researcher of NH Korindo Securities Indonesia Reza Priyambada said expectation of a cut in Bank Indonesia benchmark interest rate (BI rate) gave a negative sentiment to the national currency.
There has been expectation of further cut in the BI rate after the countrys deflation in two successive months , January and February.
Earlier the Indonesian central bank already cut its interest from 7.75 percent to 7.5 percent.
"The cut expectation of the BI rate prompted short term investors to sell their rupiah," he said.
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
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