Indonesia is the world's largest archipelago. And due to the country's enormous size it contains a high degree of diversity in terms of religion and traditional beliefs. Although Indonesia has a Muslim-majority population, it is a secular democracy with a constitution that guarantees all Indonesian citizens the freedom of worship, each according to his or her own religion or belief (this system does not function perfectly in reality, however). Still, it means that Indonesia contains many (mostly religion-inspired) public holidays on which the nation's financial markets are closed.

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On 8 January 2017, Indonesia Investments released the latest edition of its newsletter. This free newsletter, which is sent to our subscribers once per week, contains the most important news stories from Indonesia that have been reported on our website over the last seven days. Most of the topics involve political, social and economy-related topics such as inflation, direct investment, a tax amnesty program update, exports, JPMorgan, the budget deficit, foreign relations, and more.

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The Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) proposes two strategies to boost Indonesia's export performance in 2017: (1) seek new export markets and (2) export 'halal' products (which adhere to Islamic law) to the Middle East. Last week Indonesia's Trade Ministry revised down its export target for 2017. The Ministry now expects Indonesia's export performance to grow 5.6 percent (y/y) to USD $136 billion this year (from an estimated USD $129 billion in 2016). The revision makes the nation's export target in line with the slow recovery of international demand.

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Investment realization in Indonesia's capital city of Jakarta fell to IDR 51.2 trillion (approx. USD $3.8 billion) in full-year 2016, down from IDR 55 trillion worth of investment in the preceding year. Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Jakarta was recorded at IDR 41.5 trillion in 2016, while domestic direct investment (DDI) reached IDR 9.7 trillion. What explains this overall decline of investment in Jakarta?

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