Emerging market currencies have been rising

Indonesian rupiah banknotes are seen in this picture illustration taken in Jakarta January 17, 2011. Indonesia moved a step closer toward securing a coveted top sovereign debt grading on Monday when Moodys upgraded its foreign and local-currency bond ratings to Ba1 from Ba2. Indonesia has been a darling of foreign investors for the last two years and has ridden out the global financial crisis with flying colours.

The appreciation in the Indonesian rupiah has been within an acceptable range, and the country and its exporters can generally tolerate it, Indonesia's Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo said in an interview in New York on Monday.

Emerging market currencies have been rising, but investors are getting increasingly hopeful that countries like Indonesia and Brazil will allow at least some of that appreciation to remain and not intervene too much. A stronger currency helps fight inflation, which is rising in the emerging world.

The finance minister's comments seemed to support this view. So far rupiah appreciation is still in the “acceptable“ range, he said. Exports are still “growing and improving,“ he added, noting that the appreciation doesn't seem to be hurting exporters.

“We are willing to tolerate (this much appreciation),“ he said.

There is at the same time a need to monitor the global environment, where issues like turmoil in the Middle East has contributed to commodity inflation, he said. A stronger rupiah “basically helps us in managing inflation,“ he said.