The rupiah fell in value today, Thursday, to below 10,000 to the dollar, from just over 8,000 on Wednesday.

Lack of confidence in the currency, which has fallen dramatically every day since the new year, was further exacerbated by the Budget announced by Suharto on Tuesday which ignored major pledges made by the government last October when it negotiated the rescue package of $38bn with the IMF. It is now widely believed that the IMF will seek to have the budget revised or suspend any further release of funds under the deal concluded last year.

We hear from people in Jakarta that a hoarding panic has taken hold with large queues forming to purchase even the most basic commodities like soap. Other sources say that shops in some commercial centres are not bothering to open because of lack of customers.

We have also been told that tanks are on the streets in Menteng but the purpose is not clear.

When we issued our New Year's Message, we called it, 1998, A Year of Living Precariously. It seems we should have been referring to the month of January which may well be a month of big changes in the Suharto regime.