Chart Book | Chart of the day: Rumpled rupiah

The Indonesian rupiah on Monday hit 12,700 per US dollar, the most needed to buy a greenback in more than 16 years. Fitch Ratings had just affirmed its short-term sovereign ratings on Friday. The central bank's response: "This is temporary because investors are repositioning their investment in relation to [Wednesday's Federal Open Market Committee] meeting". That's it? Observed volatility is up by half, from a very modest 4 per cent to 6 per cent. If the technical break above 12,250 major resistance is maintained, the currency could revert to the Asian financial crisis peaks of 1998 at 15,500 and 16,800. And after that, things could get even worse.