Indonesia’s rupiah slumped this week, touching the lowest level since 2001, on concern restrictions on currency purchases will deter investors from buying the nation’s assets. South Korea’s won posted its second weekly loss.
Nine of the 10 most-active Asian currencies outside Japan weakened during the five days as the global financial crisis crimped demand for emerging-market assets.
Indonesia will require companies and individuals based in the nation to seek approval for foreign-exchange purchases of more than US$100,000 a month, Bank Indonesia Senior Deputy Governor Miranda Goeltom said on Wednesday.
“The market and both local and foreign banks are assessing what the short-term implications are in the change in rules” for the rupiah, said Enrico Tanuwidjaja, an economist in Singapore at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, the nation’s third-largest bank. “Plus there are so few parties willing to let go of their dollars while demand is still pretty high.”
The rupiah slid 6.2 percent this week to 11,615 per US dollar as of 4:30pm in Jakarta on Friday, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
The currency, which weakened to a seven-year low of 11,988 on Thursday, may fall to 12,000 this month, Tanuwidjaja said.
The won declined 5 percent this week to 1,399.20, Seoul Money Brokerage Services Ltd said.
South Korea’s won reversed an advance on Friday as overseas investors accelerated sales of the nation’s assets, bolstering the demand for dollars.
The New Taiwan dollar completed a weekly decline, halting two weeks of gains, on concern the global slowdown will hurt Taiwan’s exports.
“The uncertainty in the US and global markets and continued outflows among foreign investors are still impacting Asian currencies,” said Maya Pinto, an economist at IDEAglobal in Singapore. “Growth for Taiwan will be downgraded further.”
The NT dollar shed 0.8 percent this week to NT$33.079 versus the US dollar, Taipei Forex Inc said. It gained 0.3 percent on Friday.
The NT dollar is “relatively stable,” as the South Korean won has posted a bigger decline, Taiwan’s central bank said on Thursday after the financial markets closed.
Elsewhere, the Malaysian ringgit dropped 1.2 percent this week to 3.5965 against the US currency and the Singaporean dollar slipped 1.5 percent to S$1.5153. The Thai baht was little changed at 34.94 versus 34.96 a week earlier. Vietnam’s dong traded at 16,979.50 from 16,984 last Friday.
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