JAKARTA, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's central bank said on Wednesday it would continue taking "consistent and measured" steps to stabilize the rupiah after the currency weakened close to the psychologically important 18,000 per U.S. dollar level.
The rupiah traded at around 17,954 per dollar in afternoon trade, according to Bloomberg data, marking its weakest level on record and down 0.65 percent from the previous close.
Bank Indonesia said it would continue to monitor global and domestic financial markets and intervene when necessary to maintain currency stability and strengthen the country's external resilience.
"Bank Indonesia will continue to remain in the market by optimizing all policy instruments to ensure market mechanisms function properly and to maintain adequate foreign exchange liquidity," BI communications department head Ramdan Denny Prakoso said in a statement.
The central bank recently introduced new rules limiting cash foreign currency purchases without underlying transactions to a maximum of 25,000 U.S. dollars per month per buyer, effective June 2. ■
