• Pulp and Paper Industry Indonesia: Challenges and Opportunities

    The pulp and paper industry of Indonesia is on the receiving end of plenty of criticism for its negative impact on the environment. However, the industry also plays a major role in the Indonesian economy, accounting for 6.7 percent of the country's processing industry's gross domestic product (GDP) and providing employment to 260,000 direct workers and 1.1 million indirect workers. Last year, in 2016, Indonesia's pulp and paper industry ranked seventh in terms of biggest foreign exchange earners (excluding the oil and gas sector) when it reaped USD $3.79 billion.

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  • Which Indonesian Stocks Gave Investors the Best Returns in 2016?

    Most listed companies on the Indonesia Stock Exchange have now released their corporate earnings reports (covering full-year 2016) and this enables us to determine which companies' shares have been the most lucrative ones last year. Four companies stand out in terms of return on asset (RoA), return on equity (RoE), and return on invested capital (RoIC). These are (1) Matahari Department Store, (2) Unilever Indonesia, (3) Surya Citra Media, and (4) HM Sampoerna.

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  • Indonesia's GDP Growth Curtailed by High Non-Performing Loan Ratio

    Indonesian banks are expected to be cautious boosting credit disbursement in the next couple of quarters because the non-performing loan (NPL) ratio is currently high with the gross NPL ratio hovering above 3 percent since mid-2016, approximately the same level as it was in 2011 when Indonesia's five-year economic slowdown commenced. Although various external and internal matters were to blame for Indonesia's 2011-2015 economic slowdown, the high NPL ratio today can undermine economic acceleration as credit growth is curbed.

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  • Foreign Exchange Reserves Indonesia Grew in March 2017

    The central bank of Indonesia (Bank Indonesia) said the nation's foreign exchange reserves rose to USD $121.8 billion in late March 2017 from USD $119.9 billion in the preceding month. The increase was primarily attributed to proceeds from tax collection, state revenue from the oil & gas sector, the issuance of global bonds and the auction of Bank Indonesia foreign exchange bills.

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