JAKARTA, Jan 29 — The rupiah fell the most in three weeks after Singapore’s easing of monetary policy spurred speculation other central banks will follow suit and on signs Indonesian growth will slow further.

Asian currencies fell after the Monetary Authority of Singapore unexpectedly weakened its dollar yesterday. Indonesia’s economy will probably expand less than 5 per cent for a couple of quarters, Benedict Bingham, senior resident representative at the International Monetary Fund, said in Jakarta today. Growth probably eased to 4.96 per cent in the three months through December, from a five-year low of 5.01 per cent in the previous period, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey before data due next week.

“Following the MAS move, there’s expectation for rate cuts from other central banks in the region and that’s dragging on currencies,” said Irene Cheung, a foreign-exchange strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd in Singapore. “We can see a rate cut from Indonesia as well, but it’s not imminent.”

The rupiah fell 0.7 per cent to close at 12,568 a dollar, the steepest drop since January 5, prices from local banks show. One-month non-deliverable forwards declined 1 per cent to 12,684 a dollar, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Bank Indonesia set a fixing used to settle the contracts at 12,515, compared with 12,498 yesterday.

The yield on government notes due September 2025 dropped one basis point, or 0.01 percentage point, to 7.22 per cent, according to the Inter Dealer Market Association. — Bloomberg