JAKARTA: Indonesia’s foreign exchange reserves fell by $1.4 bln last month to $130.8 bln due to payments of foreign debt and the central bank’s effort to stabilise the rupiah currency, Bank Indonesia (BI) said on Friday.

BI said in a statement said the reserves were “affected by…the need for rupiah stabilisation amid global financial market uncertainty.”

The reserve level was equal to imports for 5.9 months, above an international standard of 3 months of imports, and was adequate to maintain Indonesia’s external and financial system stability, BI said.

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The central bank previously said its strategy to defend excessive falls in the rupiah by focusing on intervention in the domestic nondeliverable forward market would limits the use of FX reserves.