Indonesia’s rupiah slid to a two-decade low, spurring intervention from the central bank as the meltdown in Argentina and Turkey raises scrutiny on emerging markets with current account deficits.
The rupiah fell to 14,750 per dollar, the weakest level since the 1998 Asian financial crisis, while the benchmark bond yields advanced 10 basis points to the highest level since 2016. The Jakarta Composite Index slipped as much as 1.3 percent.
“The rupiah’s under performance relative to the rest of emerging markets stems from Indonesia’s weak external payments position, especially the current account deficit,” said Prakash Sakpal, Singapore-based economist at ING Groep NV. Still, “things now are far different than 20 years ago when the crisis originated in Asia and rupiah’s external creditworthiness was much weaker.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-31/rupiah-falls-to-asian-crisis-low-as-emerging-market-pain-spreads
