REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Indonesian rupiah strengthened against the US dollar in the Jakarta interbank spot market on Wednesday morning ahead of the Central Statistics Agency's (BPS') announcement of the country's economic growth in 2018. Samuel Aset Manajemen economist Lana Soelistianingsih said on Wednesday that she forecasts the economic growth will lie in the range of 5.08 percent to 5.12 percent.

The market consensus has forecast that the 2018 economic growth will reach 5.1 percent year-on-year, lower than 5.4 percent assumed in the 2018 state budget. In the first three quarters of 2018, the economic growth had averaged 5.17 percent yoy.

Soelistianingsih further noted that several US economic data, which showed a slowdown, had influenced the movement of the rupiah.

Earlier, the US manpower data also indicated a slowdown, but the slowdown has not become an indicator of the US economic slowdown towards the recession phase, he stated. The rupiah rose 17 points to open at Rp13,945 per dollar as compared to Rp13,962 per dollar earlier.

"Today, the rupiah is expected to move in the range of Rp13,970 to Rp14,010 per dollar," she added.

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