The rupiah was flat at 16,580 per US dollar at 0645 GMT, hovering near the all-time low of 16,800 touched in June 1998, during the Asian Financial Crisis and just after the fall of Indonesia’s authoritarian leader, General Suharto.
On Tuesday, the rupiah hit a post-crisis low of 16,640 before the central bank intervened to defend the currency.
“Sentiment is very poor whether you’re looking at equities or the rupiah,” said Pauline Ng, head of equities for Southeast Asian nations at JPMorgan Asset Management.
“With the new administration coming in, there was a market expectation that it would be business as usual. Miscommunication and some of the policies have led to uncertainty in the market.”
The rupiah has lost 3% against the dollar this year, making it the worst-performing Asian currency and prompting the central bank to step into the market regularly to steady the declines.
