The rupiah strengthened to Rp 15,195 per United States dollar on Thursday, a 0.21 percent improvement on the Rp 15, 227 per dollar the previous day, according to the Jakarta Interbank Spot Dollar Rate (Jisdor). CSA Research Institute analyst Reza Priyambada said on Thursday that the approval of the 2019 state budget by the House of Representatives had a positive impact on the rupiah and the announcement of the 0.28 inflation rate in October would further help the currency. There are a number of positive sentiments domestically that are helping the rupiah to appreciate. We hope that the trend will continue, particularly with the release of the inflation rate and macroeconomic data, he said as quoted by tempo.co. The rupiah appreciation was also in line with the strengthening of other Asian currencies. Only the Malaysian ringgit weakened against the greenback before midday on Thursday. Analysts believe the appreciation of the Asian currencies has been sparked the correction of the US dollar index, which was at 96.83 on Thursday morning, 2.1 percent lower than its position on Wednesday. The dollar index had previously strengthened by 5.43 percent since January. Source : The Jakarta Post Nov 03, 2018