USD 1 = IDR 8. Why Not?

Posted on August 3rd, 2010 at 3:46 pm by Akhyari

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I wrote the article below on November 7, 2007, when nobody talked nor mentioned about this, let alone discussing it. Indonesian economy had gained its momentum since 7 years ago, where it grows convincingly when others’ fell. Indonesia, is now the world’s 16th largest economy, and member of prestigious G20, a group consisting of world’s 20 largest economies.

Rupiah, Indonesia’s currency, is one of world best performing currencies, and it is now very stable. The Indonesian government’s plan to denominate the rupiah is really just in time. Soon, you will not see many zeroes in Indonesia’s money. Rupiah is very likely to be somewhere around $1 = Rp. 8 after the denomination. Well, GNFI supports the plan and will do anything needed to help the government to materialize the plan. Enjoy the old-yet-new article.

Go to cafe’s or food stalls in Jakarta malls, or even malls in small cities like Jogja or Solo, you’ll easily find them putting the price lists without the last three zeros. Nobody finds it confusing.
A cup of coffee is Rp 27.5 (means Rp.27,500), and for sure you will (still) have to pay Rp.27,500 with the current currency. It will really simplify our transaction, our ‘money-spelling’, and hehehe… raise our dignity.

My Singapore family always “complained” about the zeros which is “too” many and sometimes make it ’scary’. No wonder because their currency is always high. Once I was in a rural area in Province of Albay, Central Philippines, when I mentioned my salary (in rupiah) they shouted “Haaaaaaaaaaaaa”, because they did not realize how ‘poor’ our currency is compared to others. I’ve been to some “economically-smaller” countries like the Philippines, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, and here we go:
US$ 1 = SI$ 12 (solomon islands dollar)
US$1 = R. 10 (Srinlankan Rupee)
US$1 = P. 49 (Philippines Peso).

Yesterday, I bought optical mouse for my laptop, and the seller said in Javanese “Regane SEKET” (The price is FIFTY), without the “thousand” which means that most people (if not all people) have already considered it as USUAL, ACCEPTABLE. It is now government’s duty to follow it up by issuing new money with new denomination, by “removing” the three zeros, and give a year tolerance to “market” this new money. A year was enough for Turkey to do exactly the same thing.”

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