The Indonesian rupiah hovered around IDR 17,900 per U.S. dollar on Thursday, easing slightly as investors turned cautious ahead of Bank Indonesia’s July foreign exchange reserves data due Friday. This followed a brief firming to IDR 17,835 in the previous session.
On the macro front, Indonesia’s economy expanded 5.29% year-on-year in the second quarter, moderating from 5.61% in Q1 amid softer private consumption and government spending.
Rupiah losses were partly contained by broad U.S. dollar weakness, as an agreement to partially reopen the Strait of Hormuz pressured oil prices, tempering global inflation worries and diminishing expectations of further Federal Reserve tightening. The rupiah was still up roughly 0.4% for the week, supported by subdued July inflation following government food price stabilization efforts and the harvest season in parts of Java.
Additional support came from foreign inflows into government bonds, while overseas investors also turned net buyers of domestic equities in July after several months of persistent outflows.
