Indonesia is “the nearest we’ve got to an Argentina or South Africa or Turkey in the region, although I’d stress they’re considerably stronger than any of those countries,” Carnell told the WSJ.
“An off-cycle BI rate hike is possible to support the rupiah,” Maximillian Lin, an emerging-markets Asia strategist at NatWest Markets, told Bloomberg. “The rupiah is still the most vulnerable among Asian currencies when the dollar strengthens and EM risk sentiment deteriorates.”
In response to the steep selling, Bank Indonesia said it had sold dollars and bought government bonds. Nanang Hendarsah, head of monetary management at Bank Indonesia, said they “decisively intervened” in the foreign exchange and bond markets on to “smooth volatility” of the rupiah.
For more information on the Indonesian market, visit our Indonesia category.