Rupiah Fall Slightly Againts the US Dollar

Jakarta (Antara) - Rupiah fell slightly 15 points against the US dollar closing at the level of 10,905 per dollar on Tuesday from 10,890 earlier. The national currency weakened on market expectation that the country's exports would fall, analyst said. "In general the sentiment in the domestic financial market is positive , but export fall expectation in September put a brake on rupiah rise," financial market analyst Renny Eka Putri from Bank Mandiri said. Renny said a decline in exports would have negative impact on the country's trade balance. "The market is again worried by trade deficit," she said. However, rupiah could still gain against the US dollar on US economic condition being not yet stable," she added. The Fed is expected to maintain its stimulus policy that would result in dollar being weakened. Meanwhile, better than expected data of Chinese economy in the July-September period served a positive sentiment for Asian currencies including rupiah, she said. The Chinese economy expanded 7.8 percent in the third quarter of this year higher than previous estimate of 7.5 percent. In addition, swap agreement between Indonesia and China contributes to the positive sentiment as the agreement would strengthen the country's foreign exchange reserves, improving the market confidence in the domestic financial market, she said. (*)