Unrest Pushes Rupiah to Rp 14,525 per US Dollar

The Indonesian Rupiah weakened against the US dollar due to negative sentiment stemming from the riots and mass protests that began on Tuesday evening (May 21st). According to RTI Business data, the Rupiah opened at Rp 14,480 per US dollar in Wednesday's (May 22nd) spot market trading. However, the Rupiah continued to fall, reaching Rp 14,525 by 4:00 PM WIB.

Ibrahim, the CEO of PT Garuda Berjangka, assessed that the Rupiah's weakening was influenced by domestic political uncertainty. This is related to the General Election Commission (KPU)'s plenary session results, which declared Joko Widodo-Ma'ruf Amin the winners of the 2019 Presidential Election. Supporters of the Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno ticket rejected these results and staged protests in front of the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) building.

These riots caused market players to engage in profit-taking in the Indonesian money market. Further weakening of the Rupiah against the US dollar is predicted, potentially reaching Rp 15,000 per US dollar, if the Police and the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) fail to secure the domestic situation.