Investors in the offshore non-deliverable forwards markets were pricing in a 12 percent depreciation in the rupiah in one month and 25 percent in a year.

Authorities are scrambling to contain a crisis sparked by fears that Indonesia could become the next casualty of a global flight from risky assets that has forced governments from Iceland to Pakistan to seek emergency aid from the International Monetary Fund.

The rupiah changed hands at 12,400 per dollar in a few deals, a trader in Jakarta said, asking not to be identified. That would be the weakest level since August 1998, when Indonesia was grappling with the fallout from the Asian financial crisis.

At that time, the rupiah went into free-fall, dropping from around 2,000 per dollar in mid-1997 to 17,000 in early 1998, leaving swathes of corporate Indonesia technically bankrupt.

Indonesian companies owed creditors abroad about $80 billion, or four times the country’s foreign exchange reserves at the start of crisis. Capital went into a panicked flight and Jakarta was forced into agreeing to an IMF rescue package.

The central bank, which last week tightened foreign exchange rules, intervened on Thursday to staunch the slide in the currency. A trader in Jakarta said the central bank’s constant enquiries in the market had depressed volumes.

The central bank bought rupiah at 12,250, traders said.

Oil-and-gas regulator, BPMigas, said it would order oil-and-gas contractors to use local banks to deposit the billions of dollars earmarked for energy.

In another reminder of the Asia crisis, the Korean won slumped to its lowest close in nearly 11 years, reflecting investor concerns that a recession in the developed economies will hammer export demand.

The Indian rupee dropped to a record low in opening trades as investors took fright at another sharp fall in global stock markets.

The rupee and rupiah have slumped more than a fifth this year and the won is down more than a third as foreign investors, stung by bank failures in the United States and Europe, bailed out of emerging markets.

Traders in Jakarta and elsewhere said banks were quoting bid/offer spreads on the rupiah as wide as 12,200-12,400 per dollar. The yawning gap at which dealers are willing to buy and sell points to nervousness and a reluctance to sell dollars.

“Not a single interbank deal went through yesterday for four to six hours,” said a trader in Hong Kong.

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