And, it certainly is no surprise to see significant movements in currency markets in the first half of November 2020. After all, a lot happened (or better: is happening) so far in November 2020, particularly in the United States. These are developments that are perceived as positive by market participants, hence risk appetite increases, and therefore emerging market assets – including the Indonesian rupiah – are able to strengthen.

It is important to note that Bank Indonesia’s Jisdor rate is set each morning, hence it has not absorbed developments on Friday’s trading day (13.11.2020) yet, when the majority of emerging market assets were under pressure (further explained below). Therefore, the Jisdor rate is bound to weaken on Monday (16.11.2020).

Nonetheless, if we take a look at the Bloomberg Dollar Index, we see the same trend: appreciating from the level of IDR 14,625 per US dollar at the end of October 2020 to the level of IDR 14,170 on Friday (13.11.2020).

The index used by Business Insider even shows a steeper appreciation for the rupiah in the first half of November 2020 as the currency started this period from a weaker position (slightly above IDR 14,750 per US dollar at the end of October 2020).

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This update consists of 12 pages

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