RUPIAH SURGES TO NEARLY RP11,000 EARLY MONDAY

Jakarta, April 13 (ANTARA) - The rupiah strengthened significantly to nearly Rp11,000 per US dollar in the Jakarta interbank spot market early Monday as investors bought the local currency following the smooth implementation of the legislative election last week.

The Indonesian currency traded at Rp11,185/11,200 per dollar, up 165 points from Rp11,350/11,365 in the market's close last weekend.
A positive sentiment from the successful legislative election enabled the rupiah to surge sharply , Edwin Sinaga, president director of PT Finan Corpindo Nusa, said here on Monday.
He predicted that the positive sentiment, however, might not stay for long as market players would next focus on the upcoming presidential election scheduled for July this year.
However, the local unit might strengthen further and approach the level of Rp11,000 per US dollar because the influx of domestic businessmen's funds deposited overseas would continue, he said.
"We are optimistic that the rupiah will reach the level of Rp11,000 per US dollar because the smooth and peaceful implementation of the legislative election was a reaffirmation that Indonesia is still a better market for investment, he said.
Sinaga said the March 2009 inflation rate at 0.22 percent was better than last month's 0.95 percent and it showed that the Indonesian economy was still growing.
"Indonesia's market is still growing and expected to encourage foreign investors to enter the domestic market," he said.
However, the Indonesian currency was easily affected by negative issues, unlike Malaysia's ringgit or Thailand's bath which were relatively strong despite political turmoil, he said.
Therefore, Bank Indonesia (BI, the country's central bank), was expected to remain in the market and closely monitor the rupiah's movements, he said.
BI was able to anticipate negative issues early, he said.
"We are optimistic that BI will stay in the domestic money market and supervise the market tightly, so that the rupiah's movements can be monitored properly," he said.