TOKYO – Indonesian officials are working overtime to dismiss any suggestion that Jakarta is catching a whiff of 1997 in the air. But the force of their interventions to steady the rupiah tells a very different story.
Bank Indonesia is hemorrhaging currency reserves to put a floor under the rupiah, which recently fell to an all-time low. This includes levels seen during the Asian financial crisis 29 years ago, as the fallout from the Iran war slams global markets.
Yet Indonesia’s move to impose capital controls suggests Southeast Asia’s biggest economy is going to the mattresses against currency speculators — in ways that could backfire.