INDONESIA: Local Markets Under Pressure Amid Ongoing Protests, BI Intervenes

Aug-29 09:21

The rupiah has underperformed peers today as concerns over mounting political unrest weighed on sentiment. USDIDR closed 0.88% higher at 16490, just below the earlier high of 16494, and local equities fell by 1.5%, as markets remained under pressure in the aftermath of onshore protests.
Earlier, President Prabowo Subianto called for calm as protests stretched into a third day. He also apologised for the death of a motorcycle taxi driver who was killed in clashes between demonstrators and the police yesterday, which has added to concerns over his handling of the dissent.
According to Bloomberg, protests began amid frustration at ongoing corruption and excessive allowances for lawmakers, while workers face job layoffs and weakening purchasing power. University students said that they would protest against the police today and several government meetings were cancelled.
Amid the pressure on the rupiah, BI officials said today that the central bank would remain present in the market to stabilise the currency with interventions in the FX spot, bond, domestic and offshore NDF. It follows the surprise 25bp BI rate cut to 5.0% last week.

Want to read more?

Find more articles and bullets on these widgets:

Jul-30 09:13

The Dollar saw its first negative start in over 5 days going into the European session, but most FX Pairs/Crosses are now fairly steady as the Globe waits for the FOMC later Today.
The Yen is still the best performer within G10s, up 0.33% on the day, although looking at the price action Market participants have seen the USDJPY exchanging hands inside a 147.81/148.17 range for the past 8 hours.
Some of the early Overnight focus was on the Australian inflation, which came below expectations.
The AUD was still flat going into the European Govie Open, but is now the worst small performer at the time of typing, down 0.12% and testing the 0.6500 figure, so far printed a 0.6497 low.
Desks will now start to speculate that the RBA could be set to cut its Rate as early as the next meeting on the 12th August.
Looking ahead, there's plenty of Data to take down before the expected unchanged Fed Rate decision, it includes, US ADP, GDP, and Core PCE QoQ.

Jul-30 09:11

Jul-30 09:10

MNI US Macro Weekly: Soft Labor Surprises Precede Payrolls

Feb-06 21:19

Latam Week Ahead - Mexico/Brazil CPI Inflation, Peru Rates

Feb-06 17:14

MNI BOE Review: February 2026 - More Than One Swing Voter

Feb-06 16:36