Indonesia’s forex reserves dropped to $130.8B at end-September

JAKARTA  – Indonesia’s foreign exchange reserves fell by $1.4 billion last month to $130.8 billion due to payments of foreign debt and the central bank’s effort to stabilize the rupiah, Bank Indonesia (BI) said on Friday.

BI said in a statement said the reserves were “affected by…the need for rupiah stabilization amid global financial market uncertainty.”

The reserve level was equal to imports for 5.9 months, above an international standard of three months of imports, and was adequate to maintain Indonesia’s external and financial system stability, BI said.

The central bank previously said its strategy to defend excessive falls in the rupiah by focusing on intervention in the domestic nondeliverable forward market would limit the use of FX reserves.