Jakarta - Indonesia's Rp100,000 banknote is the second highest currency denomination among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) after Vietnam's 500,000 dong note, Bank Indonesia (BI/the central bank) Governor Darmin Nasution said. He said that the high denomination of rupiah suggested that it had a low value. Therefore, Indonesia is planning to re-denominate its rupiah currency by imposing a three-digit cut or omitting three zeroes on the rupiah bill. Thus, the re-denomination of a Rp1,000 note would have its three zeroes taken off to become Rp1, yet its value would remain the same. According to Darmin, the third highest currency denomination in the region is that of the Lao kip (50,000), followed by Cambodian riel (100,000), Myamarese kyat (5,000), Philippine peso (1,000), Thai baht (1,000) and Malaysian ringgit (100). Besides, the exchange value of the rupiah against the US dollar does not reflect the strong economy of Indonesia. The rupiah's value against the US dollar is too low compared with the exchange values of other currencies in the ASEAN region. He said that the rupiah's value against the US dollar on January 21, for example, was Rp9,788 per US$1, while the values of Malaysian ringgit, Philippine peso, Singaporean dollar and Thai baht against the US dollar were MYR 3.05, PHP 41.92, SGD1.23 and THB30.52, respectively. Therefore, Darmin said, the government had decided to continue with its plan to redenominate the Indonesian currency. He added that the government was also certain that implementing the plan would not lead to inflation. (*)
