Rupiah Regains More Value Against U.S. Dollar

Jakarta, Feb 17 (Antara) - The rupiah value in inter-bank transactions rose against the US dollar in the opening trade on Monday Rupiah traded at the level of 11,715 per dollar gaining from Rp11,856 earlier. "Rupiah strengthened on improvement recorded in the Indonesian economic data such as consumer confidence on domestic economy adding to positive macro economic data released earlier," chief researcher of Trust Securities Reza Priyambada said. Reza said expectation that the macro economic condition of Indonesia would continue to improve kept rupiah in the positive area. The market players also considered the benchmark interest rate (BI rate) of Bank Indonesia as positive. "The market players noted that the decision of the central bank to maintain the BI rate at 7.5 percent had helped prop up the economy after being slowing down earlier," he added. Externally, some of US economic data published last week showed a decline such as retail sales resulting in weaker dollar. "The condition prompted market players to turn to the currencies of developing countries such as rupiah," he said. Financial market observer from Bank Himpunan Saudara, Rully Nova, said the country`s economic fundamentals are still conducive with the foreign exchange reserves up to 100.651 billion in January, 2014 from less than US$100 billion in December in 2013.