Bank Indonesia Used Foreign Exchange Reserves to Support Rupiah
The central bank of Indonesia (Bank Indonesia) announced that the country’s foreign exchange reserves fell by USD $3.9 billion to USD $111.6 billion at the end of March 2015 as the central bank used part of the forex reserves to support the Indonesian rupiah which had started to depreciate markedly due to bullish US dollar momentum amid further looming monetary tightening in the USA. The rupiah had fallen to a 17-year low of IDR 13,237 per US dollar in mid-March as market players are anticipating an interest rate hike in the USA.
Bank Indonesia's benchmark rupiah rate (Jakarta Interbank Spot Dollar Rate, abbreviated JISDOR) appreciated 0.22 percent to IDR 12,973 per US dollar on Thursday (09/04).
Indonesian Rupiah versus US Dollar (JISDOR):
| Source: Bank IndonesiaApart from stabilizing the rupiah, Bank Indonesia’s foreign exchange reserves also declined due to external debt payments. In a statement released on the website of the Indonesian central bank it read that the current level of foreign exchange reserve assets (USD $111.6 billion) can adequately cover 6.9 months of imports or 6.6 months of imports and servicing of government external debt repayments, which is well above the international standards of reserves adequacy at three months of imports.
At the end of February 2015 Indonesia's foreign exchange reserves stood at USD $115.5 billion.
Indonesia's Foreign Exchange Reserves 2008-2015:
| 2008 | 2009 |
2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015² | |
| Foreign Exchange Reserves¹ |
51.6 | 66.1 | 96.2 | 110.1 | 112.8 | 99.4 | 111.9 | 111.6 |
¹ in billion US dollar
² at end-March 2015
Source: Bank Indonesia