Monex Investindo Futures analyst Dini Nurhadi Yasyi said on Friday the rupiah`s depreciation was still influenced by external sentiments, particularly uncertainty over the US-China trade talks and the strengthening of the dollar index.

"After the US GDP released overnight is good, market expectations of the (Fed) rate hike have increasingly become stronger, at least it will be raised once (this year)," he said.

The sentiments related to the Fed monetary policy are very sensitive for developing nations, including Indonesia, he said.

In the past week, the rupiah was still unable to hit the level of below Rp13,900, the strongest level since the rupiah sharply depreciated to up to Rp15,000 per dollar last year.

On the domestic side, there is no strong catalyst to boost the rupiah to further increase.

"Our controllable inflation is also unable to become a strong catalyst," he said.

The rupiah weakened at Rp14,101 per dollar in the opening trade. Throughout the day, the rupiah stayed in the range of Rp14,101 to Rp14,130 per dollar.

According to Bank Indonesia`s mid rate on Friday, the rupiah fell to Rp14,111 per dollar compared to Rp14,062 per dollar earlier.

Source : Antaranews.com

Mar 02, 2019