Rupiah Spot Weakened 0.73% to Rp 15,783 per US Dollar, Friday (22/3)

RUPIAH - JAKARTA. The rupiah exchange rate, which weakened in yesterday's trading, reversed and weakened against the United States dollar (US) today. On Friday (22/3), the spot rupiah rate weakened by 0.73% to 15,783 per US dollar.

In a week, the spot rupiah rate even weakened by 1.18% from the position of Rp 15,599 per US dollar, on Friday (15/3). The weakening of the rupiah coincides with the direction of Asian currencies.

Because, the US dollar strengthened against the majority of the world's major currencies today. The dollar recorded the highest weekly strengthening in the last two months, including against Asian currencies.

The Swiss National Bank unexpectedly cut its benchmark interest rate. Meanwhile, the Bank of England has also started to adopt a dovish stance.

"The market is starting to weigh again after this week's FOMC. The weakening of the yuan also affects Asian and G10 currencies, especially the Australian dollar which often acts as a proxy for the yuan," said David Forrester, senior FX strategist at Credit Agricole CIB to Bloomberg.

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Today, only the Japanese yen and the Hong Kong dollar each strengthened by 0.2% and 0.04% against the US dollar.

Meanwhile, the Korean won plunged 1.2% and recorded the deepest weakening in Asia. The weakening of the won was followed by the rupiah, offshore yuan, Malaysian ringgit, Philippine peso, Chinese yuan, Singapore dollar, Thai baht, Taiwan dollar, and Indian rupee.

On the other hand, the dollar index, which reflects the exchange rate of the US dollar against the world's major currencies, strengthened by 0.29% to 104.31. In a week, the dollar index strengthened by 0.85%.