CIDISS. The weakening of the rupiah exchange rate which has occurred in recent times still makes Indonesian society anxious. This is due to the weakening that happened to penetrate the figure of Rp.15,000 per US dollar so that many people consider that this is a new weakening level that can interfere with Indonesia’s economic performance. However, in fact in addition to providing losses, the weakening of the rupiah exchange rate also brought its own advantages.
The dynamics of the rupiah exchange rate against the US dollar lately turned out to have a positive impact on the State Budget (APBN). Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said that for any weakening or depreciation of Rp 100 per US $ there would be an increase in state revenues and spending.
However, it cannot be denied that not many know that the weakening of the rupiah also carries a number of positive impacts, in addition to negative impacts. Then, what should we do to help the government in order to stabilize the rupiah exchange rate?
One of them is by bringing back foreign exchange proceeds from exports to Indonesia, given that there are still export – import entrepreneurs who keep foreign exchange from exports abroad in the form of foreign exchange. The more capital invested in the country, the higher the potential of the rupiah to strengthen.
In addition to this, the government needs to give a moral message to Indonesian citizens to love the rupiah and domestic products. This is certainly not easy given the competitiveness of the rupiah and domestic products is still lower than other countries. Moreover, the Indonesian people are still accustomed to living consumptively and perceive that domestic products have a lower prestige than foreign products.
By loving the rupiah and domestic products more, the circulation of the rupiah in the country will be even higher so that it is expected that rupiah depreciation can be suppressed and can be one of the strategies to strengthen the rupiah in the future.
By: Mirwan Achmad *)