Indonesia president pledges no government intervention in monetary policy amid weak rupiah

Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo promised on Monday that the government will not intervene in monetary policy decisions by the central bank in response to a weakening rupiah currency.

“The government will not intervene in monetary (policy) because it is the policy of Bank Indonesia,” Widodo told reporters, adding that he believed the fundamentals of Southeast Asia’s largest economy were “good”.

BI Governor Agus Martowardojo last week said he would be prepared to raise the benchmark interest rate if the rupiah’s weakness threatened the bank’s inflation target or disrupted financial market stability.

The rupiah has been trading near its lowest since January 2016 in the past week. It traded at 13,870 a dollar at 0310 GMT Monday.