Indonesia’s central bank is set to raise its benchmark interest rate for a third time since May in a bid to halt a deepening currency rout.Southeast Asia’s biggest economy is struggling to fire and inflation remains subdued, but Bank Indonesia’s (BI) focus is squarely on the rupiah. Indonesia has been among the hardest hit in Asia in a global emerging-market sell-off triggered by higher United States (US) interest rates and a stronger dollar.

Indonesia’s new central bank governor is putting his stamp of authority on his role, calling an unscheduled policy meeting for Wednesday and setting the stage for a second interest rate increase in two weeks to stem a rout in the currency.A day after Governor Perry Warjiyo was sworn into office, Bank Indonesia announced that the monetary policy board will meet this week, about a month before its next regular monthly scheduled one.

Indonesia’s market rout shows no signs of abating, with its two-year bonds the latest to be dumped in anticipation that the central bank may need to raise rates to defend its currency.The yield on the two-year debt soared 34 basis points to a 10-month high of 6.73 percent as the currency weakened past the psychological 14,000 level on Monday.

After a turbulent past few months, the performance of the Indonesian rupiah in the exchange market is finally looking up. The Indonesian rupiah was trading at 13,370 rupiah per United States (US) dollar on Wednesday. The central bank, Bank Indonesia expects the rupiah’s performance in the foreign exchange market to be less volatile. The rupiah hit rock bottom at the start of the month with their worst performance in two years. The rupiah hit a two-year low of 13,800 to the US dollar.

Indonesia needs to boost government revenue to win a credit rating upgrade like India, Moody’s Investors Service said.“The challenge for Indonesia is not so much curbing spending but raising revenues,” Anushka Shah, Moody’s sovereign analyst in Singapore, said in an emailed response to questions.

In the Dutch language, gijzeling means to take someone hostage. In Indonesia, that’s how authorities describe their strategy to deal with tax dodgers, throwing dozens of people in jail as part of a national crackdown.Eight months after the government closed an amnesty programme that gave Indonesians a chance to come clean on their tax affairs, it’s taking aggressive action to deal with those who still haven’t paid up.

Indonesia’s success in taming consumer prices provides room for lower interest rates, President Joko Widodo said, while making it clear that it was the job of the central bank to determine whether to cut.Inflation will average less than four percent this year, down from more than eight percent in 2014 when he took office, Widodo – also known as Jokowi – said in an interview at Huta Ginjang, overlooking the picturesque Lake Toba, where he had been to open a newly upgraded airport nearby.

If India’s experience of selling local-currency notes in the overseas market is anything to go by, Indonesia’s plan to issue Komodo bonds may not be all plain sailing.The sovereign is mulling a sale of offshore rupiah-denominated bonds, and three state-owned infrastructure companies are considering issuance in coming months.

Malaysia celebrates the 60th anniversary of its independence from the British Empire on August 31, 2017. For sixty years, this proud Southeast Asian nation has adopted its own currency that is known today as the ringgit. Following the story and the origins of the ringgit, The ASEAN Post met with a Malaysian currency collector in the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur - the capital city of Malaysia.